A Seafaring Adventure
by Alpine992
Summary: After secretly gaining his Fullbring powers after the Winter War, Kisuke has a job for Ichigo and Chad to explore a world that is not their own through a rift discovered in the Dangai. From strange Pirates to even stranger abilities this is one adventure that they would have never expected to have. Ichigo and Chad will have an adventure of a lifetime with new faces aboard.
1. Chapter 1

The wind gently blew through the open window, the curtains swaying slightly as a result. While the teen inside the bedroom knew it was coming, he resigned himself to the fact it was completely ridiculous. Kurosaki Ichigo was waiting for the 'signal' or so he was told to do. He should have known that Kisuke was a man of theatrics by now. It had been the same months ago when he was called upon to meet Kisuke at his shop after his training had been completed when he first ventured forth to the Soul Society to rescue Rukia. It seemed long ago now. So much had happened after rescuing Rukia from her own execution which led into what he was told was the Seireitei's largest crisis being Sōsuke Aizen, the Arrancar, and the whole ordeal with the Winter War.

But, all of that was over now. Seireitei had come out on top, the War was over, the Arrancar defeated and those that weren't killed were forced back to Hueco Mundo and Aizen was detained for the next twenty thousand years from what Ichigo knew. Since Aizen could not be killed, execution was off the table and imprisonment was the only option. After all, for everything Aizen had done, a simple slap on the wrist wasn't possible.

After everything that had happened, Ichigo had been left completely powerless due to the events of the final battle between himself and Aizen, sometimes he had to wonder how his life had become so battle orientated. He had been just a normal high schooler with a strange ability to see ghosts, then he was a some kind of spirit warrior in the events of a war. But because of the use of the Final Getsuga Tensho, he had been left powerless. As far as the members of the Seireitei were concerned, he still was powerless. However, that wasn't the case. It was only just a few short weeks, not even a month had passed since he had awoken, and Rukia had disappeared right before his eyes. It was believed that once Ichigo used the Mugetsu, sacrificing all his power, he would return to the normal life he had before the events of that fateful night.

However Ichigo hadn't been idle during this time. No, Ichigo had regained a sense of himself back through rigorous training with Kisuke and Yoruichi. The only other person, other than these two who knew that he had been his closest friend, Yasutora Sado. In truth, it was all because of Chad that Ichigo had been able to discover this unknown power deep within him. After the origin of Chad's power had been found by Kisuke, it was easy for the Ex-Captain to trigger such a reaction in Ichigo, kick-starting Ichigo's powers once more. Ichigo could never thank Kisuke enough for what he had done, but Kisuke had informed him Ichigo deserved his respect and aide. Damn the rules of society.

Since the discovery of his new found power, Ichigo had delved into developing it, becoming accustomed to his new power as fast as he could. It took a few weeks, but now his power felt complete. While he didn't know how he knew that, it was more of an instinctual feeling and with how Kisuke had explained to both Ichigo and Sado, which their power was hollow related, he fully accepted the instinctual aspect of it after having had experience already dealing with his inner hollow prior. He believed that if he fought the idea of using Hollow abilities, something sinister like his inner hollow might once more emerge so he accepted it.

Even Sado had become stronger, once Ichigo was ready to practice alongside him once he had gotten his baring with his new power; both had jumped leaps and bounds in their strengths. Since their power relied on their own body's physical strength they were sure to keep it up. In a way, this had once again mended the friendship that had dwindled over the course of Ichigo's time as a Shinigami; the feeling of unease in Sado had been lifted now that Ichigo was on the same strength level and not soaring above where Sado believed he could never reach. It felt much like before, how they both relied on one another. But despite their even strength at the current time, Sado believed that Ichigo would soar high above soon enough, and he had no intention of being left behind by his best friend. Not again.

Ichigo didn't intentionally withhold the information that he had received a way to fight again, no, that decision was made by Kisuke. Even Ichigo's own Father didn't know about the change in his son's Reiryoku levels. Kisuke had made it perfectly clear that he had no intention of placing Ichigo in such a position to fight Soul Society's battles for them like he was forced to do with Aizen. Kisuke had made Ichigo and Sado swear to secrecy about the return of Ichigo's power, if it was somehow found out that Soul Society came to know of it, Kisuke believed that Ichigo might be targeted. While Ichigo didn't like hiding from his friends in such a way, he trusted Kisuke despite the unease in his heart and to be honest, he was enjoying himself. He didn't feel the tremendous weight of responsibility at having to look after Karakura Town; the Shinigami currently residing in Karakura was doing a good job. He had the freedom to explore his own powers with no shackles that Soul Society might have placed on him. It was somewhat enjoyable able to dive into his own powers now that he had the time to do so.

Ichigo had wondered why his newly regrown strength was a secret, but he figured that Kisuke was just keeping him out of Soul Society's line of sight, despite the fact that Ichigo had affected the other realms in a drastic way; he would still be subject to their laws despite him being human. His power as it was right now was solely that of a Hollow. While Chad's powers were still a question to the Seireitei, they had made no move to investigate either Sado's or Orihime's powers. Leaving them free to walk around freely for the time being, Kisuke would make efforts to keep the origins of their powers secret for as long as possible. It was told to both Ichigo and Sado that Orihime's powers were not like either of theirs; it didn't resemble that of a Hollow at all and was there for nothing to do with their own powers. So, as long as Chad's power was kept from the Soul Society he would have no troubles. After Central Forty Six was re-instated, Kisuke wanted to take no chances. Hence the secrecy.

Ichigo sat by the window fully dressed, wearing a black shirt underneath a white long sleeved jacket, white pants and white shoes, this time he had taken precautions of Kisuke's little retrieval habit of a balloon filled with an unknown substance to call upon people. In truth, Ichigo had no idea way Kisuke was requesting Ichigo and Chad so late, or earlier depending on your thoughts, it currently being 3:00am by what his alarm clock said. One thing did stick in the back of Ichigo's mind though; the way Kisuke had requested both Chad's coin from his Grandfather and the Substitute Badge from Ichigo. Both of these were used in manipulating their powers.

Kisuke, upon discovering how their powers worked, found that they were able to manipulate the souls contained within matter. Everything, even rudimentary objects such as lampposts and chairs possess a soul, however small. By using their power to "pull" on this soul, they can manipulate the object's movement or even alter its physical characteristics. By developing an affinity for a particular object, such as Chad's coin or Ichigo's substitute badge, items both had a strong bond with; they can alter its form, granting powers that vary greatly among individuals.

"He better not screw with my badge." Ichigo muttered as he leaned back against the window frame with more than enough room for any projectiles to whiz by him should for some 'unknown' reason that it might happen. Kisuke had told Chad and Ichigo earlier that he had a job in mind for the two; he was requesting them since he didn't want the Soul Society in the know just yet. What the job was, Ichigo had no idea and quite frankly it was unnerving him just how secret Kisuke was keeping it. He had even been secretive around Yoruichi. This had just irritated Yoruichi and made her more determined to kick their ass in training. Ichigo could still feel the blows she had landed on him before he called it a day and both he and Chad limped away from Kisuke's shop.

Casting his head back he looked up to the ceiling, a small smile tugging at his lips. Now that he had his powers back, he felt whole again. Not that he regretted what he had done when he used the Final Getsuga Tensho, but there had been a part of him that had been missing after he had awoken.

**'Message Received'**

Ichigo's eyes blinked in surprise as across the room sitting on his desk, the light of his phone was illuminating his room as the device vibrated on the desk slightly. Disregarding the fact it was way passed any reasonable time to send someone a message he shuffled across his bed, before looking at the phone and his surprised expression turned to a scowl. The message was from Kisuke.

**'All preparations are complete, if you would please make your way over to the shop.'** Ichigo could feel his hand tightening around his phone; he was about ready to throw that damn thing across the room, however...

**'Message Received'**

**'P.S, Ichigo, if you thought you would stay awake with your window open, what do you think I am, a one trick pony?'**

"Screw you Kisuke!" Ichigo growled to himself as he shoved the phone into his desk draw before slipping on his shoes, having already prepared them when he was getting ready to wait for Kisuke's message. Glancing out the window he swore he could see a glint in the sky, probably Kisuke watching off from the distance with some kind of telescope just to see Ichigo's reaction. Simply flipping the bird at the light he leapt out the window, the soles of his feet housed a green luminescent glow before he shot off across the sky. Karakura was not a lively part of Japan, so the streets were practically empty at this time of night, the odd car or two and a few street lights were on but other than that nothing. Ichigo landed in the clearing before Kisuke's place, the small shop located on the large block of land. It was a surprise that no one actually came to Kisuke's to buy anything with how suspect it looked to be.

"Ichigo." Chad's familiar voice reached him from behind causing Ichigo to look over his shoulder at the large teen standing a few meters behind him. Just as always, Chad stood tall due to his heritage, his build just as massive as ever.

"Morning Chad." Ichigo greeted in return as the two fell into step as they headed towards Kisuke's shop; the light was on so they had no problem with entering. The two entered like they always did and headed for the back of the store to where they knew Kisuke would be. Tessai was not present, nor was Yoruichi or Jinta and Ururu. As the two walked through the store, Ichigo looked around as he walked through the Shoten, remembering all the times he had sought Kisuke out for information on anything Soul Related that he didn't know himself or couldn't figure out. Kisuke was a well of information and secrets. The two entered the back room only to find it empty, they glanced at one another before looking to the hatch of the basement to see it slightly open, shrugging both teens opened the hatch and jumped down, using the same green light to slow their descent to the training ground below.

"You two finally made it." Kisuke chuckled from where he was sitting on a rock, his legs crossed with his bucket hat by his side. It wasn't often that you saw Kisuke without his trademark hat on his head.

"What's with all the secrecy Kisuke?" Ichigo questioned as both walked towards him.

"Hmm..." Kisuke hummed as he rubbed his chin looking at Ichigo before grinning. "Well, I've been asked by the Soul Society to look into something." He started.

"And that needs our attention why?" Ichigo questioned, still confused on the particulars. "You were rather frank about me not being discovered by the Soul Society yet, so why would you send me on a job for them?"

"Ah, a marvellous question." Kisuke nodded. "They simply won't know of your assistance, trust me on that." Kisuke explained rather seriously. "They simply believe me to be fixing a certain anomaly in the Dangai is all, what I need of you two is beyond that." He grinned, Ichigo and Chad both sweat dropped as they stared at the man. "Jinta and Ururu are busy with Tessai on another project, so I'm in need of two strapping young men I can put in harm's way." The grin on Kisuke's face didn't falter once.

"So... you're openly telling us you want to put us into danger for some experiment?" Ichigo questioned with a deadpan.

"I'm well aware that the both of you can handle yourselves, since training together you've become capable of handling yourselves against the majority of the hollows that you've come across, not to mention both of you together have been pushing Yoruichi." Both teens felt a bit of pride at those words, Yoruichi was no slouch and Ichigo knew Yoruichi was never one to hold back in training, from his prior experiences with her. He hadn't actually taken into account that both his and Chad's teamwork had come so far since training together. "So, without restraint I fully believe with the two of you working together and the experience the both of you two have I'm sure that you'll be fine."

"Can we know about the experiment before we agree?" Chad questioned making Kisuke pout.

"Then you might be inclined to say no..." He told them making both sweatdrop in unison. "But I'll tell you what I can." He agreed making both shake their heads, Kisuke should just get to the damn point sometimes, and it would save a lot of trouble in the long run. "My good old former subordinate, Mayuri Kurotsuchi." Both teens shuddered at the name of the Captain of the Squad Twelve, both knowing full well just how creepy the Captain was. "Has come across an anomaly within the Dangai that has caused a certain amount of discomfort, it has the Soul Society slightly concerned."

"What kind of anomaly?" Chad questioned.

"We're not fully sure." Kisuke told them. "But, upon inspection it's some kind of rift."

"A rift?" Ichigo questioned not understanding.

"Indeed, a rift to somewhere that leads neither to the Soul Society, nor to Hueco Mundo that can only be entered within the Dangai precipice world." Kisuke explained.

"So... where does it go?" Ichigo asked, his curiosity getting the better of him.

"Don't know." Kisuke simply stated with a happy smile causing Ichigo to run his hand down his face, he should have expected as much. "If I knew that, I wouldn't need my two assistants."

"You're kidding!" Ichigo groaned at being forced into another of Kisuke's blatant excuse for an experiment. "You expect us to go into it!?"

"Would you be surprised if I said yes?" Kisuke questioned hesitantly getting blank stares from both teens in return they really wouldn't be surprised in the least. "Look, I know this is all very sudden, that you need all the time in the world to think of the possibilities that could happen." Both teens glanced at one another before turning back to Kisuke. "But in truth, there is really no one else I can ask this of." He stated seriously. "I'm a scientist; the rift opens up into a brand new world of possibilities I can't ignore it. I personally cannot go and if Soul Society had their way, I needn't explain what would happen now do I." Chad nodded while Ichigo rubbed the bridge of his nose. "I've bargained with the higher ups for time, meaning they've allowed me to quarantine the sections of the Dangai off until they've given me the go ahead."

"Then why not just wait for the go ahead?" Ichigo questioned. "Why drag us into it?"

"Because knowing what I know of Mayuri, the moment I'm given the go ahead, he'll take all the credit and make it his own research." Kisuke pouted getting a groan from Ichigo as Chad hung his head; this was just a massive petty grudge the two scientists have for one another! "Plus, nobody would expect the two of you to be involved."

"Oh yeah, and what happens when questions about our whereabouts get brought up?" Ichigo questioned in irritation.

"Don't worry; I have all that planned out." Kisuke waving away Ichigo and Chad's follow up questions. "So, we will now enter the Dangai, I will show you the anomaly rift, and you'll enter." Kisuke began. "Upon emerging the other side..."

"That's if we do emerge." Ichigo muttered to Chad who nodded in agreement.

"Ehem, once you _do_ arrive." Kisuke began again with a glare at the two. "Ichigo, you'll communicate with me through the communication device in your badge." Kisuke stated tossing Ichigo the wooden object. Ichigo sighed but nodded, Kisuke had destroyed any and all traces of the Soul Society's surveillance on his badge once he had begun training again, only to insert his own that the Soul Society wouldn't be able to track, this allowed Kisuke to communicate Ichigo, whenever he saw was necessary. With Kisuke, it really wasn't necessary.

Several times Ichigo had awoken in the middle of the night with Kisuke whispering about his shops sails only for Ichigo to throw the badge into a draw just to shut it up. He had even awoke to Yoruichi trying to give him subliminal messages to hit on woman and get a date. It really wasn't for the best the two had unauthorised access like that.

"Why did you take his badge and my coin?" Chad questioned as Kisuke produced the coin and tossed it across to Chad, the large teen throwing the chain over his head and smiling as he held the coin in his grip.

"Great question!" Kisuke cheered joyfully only for Chad and Ichigo to groan in unison.

"Please just explain in layman terms." Ichigo stated, holding his hand up to stop Kisuke going on a random spout of nonsense that neither Chad or Ichigo would probably understand and being 3am, neither wanted to begin to understand.

"Fine, spoil sports ruin all my fun." Kisuke mumbled. "I implanted a way for me to locate either of you anywhere on the other side of the rift, also it will allow me to monitor your strength and how this other realm will affect your powers." Ichigo and Chad glanced at one another, seemed feasible, and if anything happened with either of their powers they at least knew who to blame it on. "Now, here is a pack of supplies, once it runs out you'll probably have to fend for yourselves." Kisuke explained as he picked up a large duffle bag at his feet and tossed it to Chad.

"Wait, just how long do you expect us to be over there for!?" Ichigo shouted at him as Chad caught the bag with ease; however Chad glanced down at the pack feeling a slight movement within. Kisuke simply looked up at them before simply shrugging. Ichigo face palmed, dragging his hand down his face with a groan. "Alright, I get why you want to send us to deal with whatever, I understand why you can't have Tessai, Ururu and Jinta do your dirty work, but why isn't Yoruichi involved?" Chad had to nod in agreement while a nod originated from the bag hidden from Kisuke and Ichigo while Chad was all too aware of it.

"What's wrong with a guy trip huh? You and Chad, Chad and you! Come on, you don't need a baby sitter!" Kisuke began to argue only for Ichigo to sweatdrop.

"You'd just miss her, is that it?"

"Pfft, no, in fact the complete opposite, I'd be more than happy to throw her into that rift for a while." Kisuke muttered to himself. "But with her suddenly disappearing it'll send alarm bells to Soul Society, which would then be a pain to deal with." Kisuke explained. "Not to mention, I have work for her to do."

"You mean, Soifon would be a pain." Ichigo retorted getting a grin from Kisuke in return. "You're a dumbass Kisuke, Yoruichi disappears for weeks at a time, I'm sure it would have sorted itself out." He began before recalling what he had just said. "We will be back in a few weeks time right!?" He growled.

"So how about we get into the Dangai and start of this little adventure hmm?" Kisuke ignored Ichigo's outburst as he turned to open the Senkaimon.

"Kisuke!"

* * *

Kisuke was grinning as he walked through the Dangai precipice world, with the Kōtotsu still being repaired after being completely destroyed by Aizen, the Kōryū was in a frozen state much like how it was when Ichigo had been training however instead of a single Shinigami like Isshin had done so, the entire Dangai had been stopped via the Kaikyō Kotei so that the scientists could work without worrying about the Kōryū. Chad and Ichigo now knew the reason as to why Kisuke had called them so late to enter this so called rift. The entire scientist team repairing the Kōtotsu would have returned to Soul Society at this time of night and there were no guards posted seeing as there was no need to be while the scientists weren't present. Kisuke led both of the teenagers through the Dangai instead of the straight and narrow path between the realms Kisuke led them through by a labyrinth of mazes. It was a wonder that Kisuke knew where he was going.

"Just up ahead." Kisuke assured the two, feeling their scepticisms that he was lost, the young they had no faith without a GPS. Just as Kisuke told them, around the next bend was a large chamber. Neither Chad nor Ichigo knew that the Dangai had such winding ways, always being straight and true to where they had to go. They never even thought it possible to explore the Dangai with the Kōtotsu. With it being destroyed by Aizen, it seems that there had been a few people curious to explore the place leading them to where they were now. In the centre of the area was the rift that Kisuke had told them. Neither of the two was expecting a tear in the centre of the room. It wasn't connected by anything, just a simple gateway into wherever it led. "Alright, this is it." Kisuke stated turning to face the two.

"No backing out now." Ichigo sighed, having come all this way and he wasn't about to bail on this now. He owed Kisuke for re-training him over the past few months after he had sacrificed his powers, if this was a way to start repaying him for that, he'd do it.

"Let's do it." Chad nodded in agreement, already knowing full well Ichigo had no incline to turn the task down despite his open annoyance to said task.

"Oh, just one thing before you two disappear into another realm of existence." Kisuke began walking towards Chad Ichigo tilting his head slightly as Chad nodded and handed out the duffel bag getting a grin from Kisuke who only shook the duffel bag roughly. Ichigo raised an eyebrow, not understanding the full extent of Kisuke's actions before an all too familiar black cat dropped from the bag causing him to sweatdrop.

"Gah Kisuke, what the hell!" Yoruichi groaned on the floor as Kisuke crouched down picking up the feline warrior by the back of her neck.

"Nah, ah uh Yoruichi, no skipping on work." Kisuke smiled only for a razor sharp set of claws to scratch his face. "Now, now, there is no need for that." Yoruichi folded her paws and glared at the shop keeper as he turned to Ichigo and Chad. "Well, now that our little stow away is dealt with, I guess I'll be seeing you... whenever." Ichigo's brow twitched still not sure on the whole basic time frame that this was going to take up.

"Keep up your training, don't be slacking off on me next time I see the two of you, you'll be in a world of hurt if you haven't kept your skills up." Yoruichi smirked at the two, less intimidating when she was a cat being held up by the scruff of her neck but both knew the threat was all too real.

"Yeah, yeah we get it." Ichigo waved it off as he walked towards the rift. "So how's this thing work..." He trailed off as he reached out his hand, the moment his hand passed through the rift he was sucked into it disappearing from sight. Chad glanced at Kisuke who ushered him forward making him hang his head as he picked up the duffel bag Kisuke had dropped and walked towards the rift, and just like Ichigo rose his hand up only to be sucked through the rift. Kisuke and Yoruichi were left in the Dangai Yoruichi now perched on Kisuke's shoulder as the two watched the rift for a short time.

"How come you didn't mention you were sending those two there?" Yoruichi asked her voice serious. "Especially Ichigo, if Soul Society catches wind of this."

"I'm aware of the consequences, but right now Ichigo being there is probably the safest place for him I couldn't keep his powers re-developing hidden forever. I've already set countermeasures for his disappearance here." Kisuke explained as he turned and began to walk back through the labyrinth. "I would have let you go to continue training them, but they need to learn to grow on their own." Yoruichi frowned; she was aware just how far the two have come in the recent months of training.

"You said you had work for me to do?" Yoruichi asked getting a nod from Kisuke.

"I've picked up traces of some certain individuals with similar powers to Ichigo and Chad." He began surprising Yoruichi. "They've seemed to have created a small group under the first Substitute Shinigami." Yoruichi's eyes narrowed slightly, there was only one other Substitute Shinigami other than Ichigo and he had turned against Soul Society. While she had been exiled with Kisuke at the time, she was aware of the happenings in Soul Society when the law had been created about making Substitutes. "Soul Society is also becoming aware of their actions, which would only eventually lead them to finding out about Ichigo and Chad's powers."

"You want me to track them down?" Yoruichi questioned, making sure she was understanding Kisuke right.

"If you would be so kind." Yoruichi rolled her eyes. "There is more I don't fully understand about Ichigo and Chad's powers, the more I learn the more we can help them to grow stronger. I've already witnessed through Ichigo's stages of his power that it could be a link to him regaining his Shinigami powers." Kisuke stated surprising Yoruichi. "I implanted a modified Asauchi into his substitute badge, just to see if it would take effect and maybe a little something from his mother as well." He smiled.

"You do realise if he finds out your experimenting like this, he'll punch you in the face again." Yoruichi stated with a slight smirk. "But if he awakens the truth behind his powers, it'll be interesting to see." Kisuke nodded in agreement. "When do I get to go over there?"

"We'll see in due time there is also a few more things I'll need you for over here before I can let you go join them." Yoruichi nodded as the two headed for the exit of the Dangai.

* * *

"I feel as though we're missing a whole lot of context." Ichigo stated as he stared down the barrel of what he could only assume to be an outdated pistol from the late 1800's. The man holding the weapon now inches from Ichigo's face was visibly shaking as he had just witnessed the two teenagers appear in front of them out of thin air. The orange haired man had come out of nowhere, as if a rip through the very fabric of space had dumped him right before the man. The teenager had simply raised his hand with a 'Yo' before another man, much larger than the orange haired one appeared right next to the first. It was then when the man drew his pistol and aimed it at the two, demanding to know who they were.

"Agreed." Chad responded only for the man to turn his pistol onto the much larger teen, this was the man's first mistake as Ichigo saw the opportunity to grab the man's wrist with his left hand and twist causing the pirate to shout in pain as Ichigo spun his wrist around to his back, swept out with a kick forcing the man to lose his footing causing him to land awkwardly on the ground as Ichigo still held his wrist in place behind his back, the pistol now on the ground next to Ichigo. With his unoccupied hand Ichigo grabbed the pistol seeing that it was very outdated and tossed it to Chad. The man watched in horror as the large man grabbed the pistol from the air examining it momentarily only for an echoing crunch to be heard as the remains of the pistol fell to the ground. With a swift punch to the face from Ichigo, the man was out like a light.

"What now?" Chad questioned as Ichigo rose up by his side, well they had discovered a few things upon first arriving here. There were people here. The time zone was clearly different since it seemed to be early morning as the sun was up. They could understand the language after engaging the man that had drawn a pistol on the two. Also, the rift didn't turn them inside out. But Chad was right; they had no idea what to do now that they were here. Both looked around only to see the street completely deserted off all life apart from this one guy. Ichigo nudged the man with his foot before sighing.

"He'll be out for a while." He stated reaching into his pocket, pulling forth his badge before raising it to his mouth as one would do with a walkie talkie. "Kisuke, we're here, now what?" Ichigo questioned only to get silence in return. "Kisuke?"

"HEY!" Their attention was drawn to a few more men that had appeared down the street all holding swords in their grips. "Who the hell are you two!?"

"Pirates?" Chad questioned Ichigo, seeing the way the three were dressed, by any standards one might figure them to be pirates but the two weren't sure if they were or not.

"Hey they knocked down Kevin!"

"Not Kevin!"

"Bastards!"

Ichigo and Chad didn't have the time to defend their actions against this 'Kevin' fellow that Ichigo had knocked out and were swiftly set upon by the three pirates. In truth, the squabble only lasted a few moments as the beat down by the two teenagers on the nameless pirates. It only made the two teens feel a little better now that they had got a slight workout but it wasn't enough of a warm up to get either of them ready for a real fight, instead of one pirate at their feet there were now four in total. Ichigo cracked his knuckles as he glared down at the only pirate still conscious after their beating with a deadly grin on his face causing the man to pale in fear.

"I've got a few questions for you." Ichigo gave an evil grin making Chad sweatdrop; it would seem that Ichigo needed to let off some pent up aggression after dealing with Kisuke. Ever since he had known Ichigo and he had wanted information from them, he had always given the same 'talk or you're dead' look. Chad simply watched Ichigo try to interrogate the terrified man, but only ended up making the man relieve himself of bodily fluids and scream like a schoolgirl. Ichigo was never really good at negotiations. While Ichigo was attempting to get information Chad crouched down figuring Ichigo would grow bored soon enough and they could move on, however movement caught Chad's eyes and he turned his head to find a tall and slim girl with blond hair and brown eyes standing in the entrance to what seemed to be a tavern of sorts. She wore a blue T-shirt and green and white chequered shorts. In her hand was a sheathed sword.

The girl spotted the two teens, and not really registering the situation at hand drew the sword in her grip and charged. It was clear to Chad that this girl was no pirate, and from the looks of it didn't hold the skills of a master swordswoman, he himself had been on the offending end of master swordsman and had been able to pick up a few signs. It was clear she knew the basics maybe a few skills, but from Ichigo's level of experience with a blade, she would be far outclassed.

"Ahhhhh!" She charged making Ichigo look up to see what the shouting was about only to see the blonde running towards them. However Chad rose to his full height and stepped in front of the girl causing her to falter, not having expected such a large man, not being able to tell his true size from his crouched position. The girl swallowed nervously as she came to a stop a few feet in front of Chad having to crane her neck to look up at his height. She had clearly misjudged her competence to deal with such a person.

"Hello." Chad spoke softly. "We're not pirates." The girl blinked in surprise as Chad stepped to the side to reveal Ichigo surrounded by the four unconscious pirates, the one he had been 'interrogating' having passed out. Ichigo tilted his head unsure of the girl. "We just happened upon these pirates."

_"Chad's been talking a lot more."_ Ichigo mused to himself as he walked towards the two. "Yo." Ichigo greeted raising his hand up. The blonde looked between the two before she hung her head letting out a breath of relief, now that she saw the two if she had to fight them, she doubted she would come out the victor especially when they had defeated some of Galleys men with ease from what she could see, neither of them had a scratch on them. "Hey, mind if we ask you a couple of questions?" Ichigo asked.

"Eh, uh, sure." The girl nodded. "Come inside."

"Wait." Chad spoke up raising his hand, figuring there was more pressing matters if these pirates were anything to go by, Pirates usually have crews yeah? This blonde girl wouldn't have come out looking ready to take them head on if this was just an ordinary occurrence. "Wouldn't it be best to deal with the pirates first?" Chad questioned as he looked between Ichigo and the girl, the blonde seemingly having realised that the town was still being attacked by pirates while Ichigo thought for a moment before nodding.

"Yeah, no harm in helping out right, not like we're pirates or anything." Ichigo stated getting a nod from Chad. "Alright, we'll get rid of these pirates for you and in return, you'll answer a couple of questions, that sound fair?" He asked.

"Seems like I'm getting the better deal here." The girl smiled but nodded regardless. "It's a deal." She happily stuck out her hand to which Ichigo took. "I'm Silk."

"Ichigo Kurosaki, this big guy is Yasutora Sado." Ichigo introduced them to the blonde. "You know which way to these pirates?" Ichigo asked figuring it would be faster to head straight to them.

"They'll be at the town square." Silk told him as she gestured down the street that would likely lead them to this town square. "They've gathered the rest of the town's people there." Ichigo nodded and began to walk down the street, Chad simply following after him leaving Silk a little nervous; shouldn't they come up with some kind of plan? "Wait! We should strategize shouldn't we? We're completely outnumbered here! They've got a whole pirate crew, we're just three people, and they have hostages!" Ichigo glanced over his shoulder at her with a grin.

"Should be interesting."

"Eh!"

* * *

Galley the newest member of the wanted men in the East Blue sea was grinning as he watched the townspeople throw their treasure, gold and valuables all into a large sack in the centre of town, all the exits were blocked off by his crew, there would be no escape and he had even made it so no one could contact the Marines. His first raid on a town since becoming a wanted man was going so easily! There was no doubt after this; he was the strongest man in the East Blue. With a crew that respected him and all the gold he could want at his fingertips there was no way anyone could stand in his way.

"Gah!"

"Captain help!"

Galley's thoughts were interrupted by the screams of his crewmates in agony; he looked over to see that more than just the two that had screamed out were now unconscious. Three people stood at the street entrance and he had no doubt in his mind that they were responsible for the interruption. From left to right there was a young blonde teenage girl with a sword that looked nervous to be there, in the centre was an orange haired teen with a grin as he cracked his knuckles ready to deliver whatever he believed to be his own personal justice and lastly a massive man that Galley was instantly wary of, the guy was huge!

"What are you waiting for you idiots? Get them!" Galley shouted at his crew who were just staring dumbly at the three. The pirates fled into actions with war cries. What Galley didn't witness as his crew blocked most of the view that he had, was Chad grab the pole of a nearby signpost and with no effort at all ripped it from the ground. This even left Silk speechless as she witnessed the man's strength, however Ichigo didn't wait for Chad to start swinging his improvised weapon already fully aware of Chad's monstrous strength even before he started to develop his powers, instead Ichigo charged straight in.

Silk was left unsure on what to do; instead Chad gave her a nod before heading after Ichigo. She sweat dropped as she watched Chad swing the sign post clearing multiple pirates with a single swing. Even Ichigo was taking on several pirates at once, while Chad relied on brute strength, Ichigo on the other hand relied on speed and reflexes and from what she saw he didn't lack power either.

Silk nodded to herself, she couldn't let Ichigo and Chad fight all alone for the sake of her town. Drawing her blade she held her head high and charged into the fray. Taking on opponents that she believed she could, with Chad and Ichigo on either side of her it was like they had her back and wouldn't let her get overwhelmed while fighting and if she were to get overwhelmed either of them would step into aide her. She, just like Ichigo and Chad was smiling as she parried and swung her sword and she was enjoying it more than she thought she would. Before long the crew of pirates lay defeated at their feet leaving both Galley and the townspeople completely speechless. Silk was breathing slightly heavy as Ichigo and Chad didn't seem the slightest bit worn out.

"Are you alright?" Ichigo questioned with a smile as he looked down at Silk who had hunched over with her hands on her knees.

"Yeah." She offered a smile up in return as she stood up. "Now it's just the Captain." She told him as Ichigo looked over to the pirate captain the only one still standing, his beard made Ichigo raise an eyebrow and he was dressed in what would seem to be normal pirate captain attire, at least to him. He held a pistol up, his hand visibly shaking his nervous form trembling at having just witnessed his entire crew being decimated by three teenagers.

"You ruined everything!" Galley shouted. "Die!" The echoing shot of a pistol echoed out, Ichigo's eyes narrowed at where he had aimed, if it was at him or Chad he knew they would be fine but he had aimed straight for Silk. His hand gripped his substitute badge as Chad moved in front of Silk with the use of the green luminescent glow of Bringer Light, Silk watched as Chad's right arm was covered with a black liquid which solidified into a form of armour. Only for the armour to morph into a shield, this extended from his hand to some distance beyond his forearm, with an intricate pattern. Hollow-like teeth lie in the centre, with a rose-like pattern or skeletal nose and eyes near the end. The bullet hit the shield as Chad defended Silk from the shot.

Silk caught sight of Ichigo's movement and Chad stepped to the side allowing Silk to see what was going on, Silk's eyes widened at what she saw. Extending from Ichigo's right hand was a strange energy that Silk had never felt before, as she watched it began to take shape into what looked like to her a four pronged bent out to form shape of a manji. But what happened next surprised Silk even more, with practiced precision Ichigo cast the energy off to the side before flinging it forward, straight towards Galley. The spinning energy spun wildly its prongs forming a complete circle at the speed it was thrown. Galley had no time to deal with the sudden development, both Ichigo's and Chad's actions having happened in the short time span of him firing his pistol and the bullet hitting Chad's shield.

The energy hit Galley with a massive force that Silk hadn't been expecting, Galley was blow off his feet with a scream of pain from the blow and was sent crashing into the building behind him. Silk ran towards the building, just to inspect what damage had been done only to find Galley unconscious on the other side of the building, Ichigo's attack having sent him straight through the outer wall, a few interior walls and the far side of the house to where Galley now was indented in the building on the opposite side that he had gone through.

"Man, that guy was a pain in the ass." Ichigo growled, the moment that pirate had put Silk's life in danger, both Chad and Ichigo had changed their tactics, they weren't about to hold back and let her get injured. They had no reason to hide their powers now that they were here in this new realm, from what Kisuke told them they had no risk of alerting Soul Society and had free reign to use their powers, Kisuke wouldn't have trusted in their strength otherwise. Looking around at the townspeople that were still awed at the sight of the three dealing with the entire pirate crew. Turning across to where Silk was still looking at the force of the blow that had.

"Yo, Silk." The blonde turned to Ichigo who gave her a smirk. "Care to answer those questions now?" Silk could only dumbly nod her head.

* * *

"This is good." Chad said as Silk placed more food in front of the two teens that were rather hungry; it was odd neither were out of the ordinary when it came to their appetite but right now the two were ravenous after their fight. With her experience in dealing with the restaurant and customers she had no problem in dealing with the two's appetites. After the fight with Galley and his pirates, the townspeople had thanked the two teens and offered their thanks to Silk as well. Chad had offered to help them apprehend the pirates, but the townspeople assured the large man that they were able to do so. So instead Silk led the two back to their restaurant and fed them while answering what questions she could. In fact she was more than happy to oblige the two as she answered their questions. Well, Ichigo had questions Chad was rather quiet and simply let Ichigo ask what was needed to be asked.

It was somewhat odd, some of the questions that silk had answered were the basic of the basic, where were they, how common were pirates, questions concerning government, just really basic stuff. She had half expected the two to ask questions that she would struggle to answer, instead they were questions that were answered in schools by children. She didn't voice her own thoughts at these questions but she certainly made a mental note of it.

"Ah, I think I overate." Ichigo groaned as he laid his head atop the table next to the stack of plates he had finished off. Chad simply leaned back in his chair while Silk grabbed the dishes and returned them to the kitchen, figuring she could do them later she returned to the eating area and sat down at the table.

"Are those the only questions you need answered?" Silk questioned.

"No idea." Ichigo breathed out causing Silk to raise an eyebrow, unsure what he meant.

"It's a long story." Chad told her, seeing her questioning her gaze. "Do you have questions?" He asked Silk making her perk up slightly.

"Your abilities, are they that of the Devil Fruit?" Silk questioned quickly making Ichigo raise his head up and Chad raise a hidden eyebrow behind his hair. This was something new to the two, they hadn't heard mention of this Devil Fruit and if she assumed that their powers were that of a Devil Fruit then there might be those elsewhere with unnatural abilities. This was something they could definitely report to Kisuke, something he himself might find interesting.

"Something like that…" Ichigo trailed off as he looked to Chad for backup.

"Amazing! I've only ever heard stories of Devil Fruit powers!" Silk exclaimed. "Is it true that eating the Devil Fruit takes away your ability to swim!?" She questioned excitedly. "Oh, how did you get your Devil Fruits, did you return from the Grand Line, I wouldn't be surprised with your strength." Ichigo had to sweatdrop as Silk barraged them with more questions before they could even begin to answer one of her prior questions. More and more questions got piled up causing Ichigo to inwardly groan, so many questions that he had no idea on how to answer any of them. However, Silk was interrupted by the door to the restaurant opening. Turning their attention to the one who entered, they were surprised to find the Mayor with a few men carrying in large sacks.

"Good, you're both still here." The Mayor smiled as the men placed the large sacks on the ground beside the Mayor.

"Ah yeah, haven't left yet." Ichigo stated. _"Not sure how we're going to if we have to travel by boat everywhere."_ He mentally added, after finding out that this world was mainly inhabited by ocean, Ichigo had already figured that they were going to need some kind of boat to get around.

"Mayor, what's going on?" Silk questioned.

"A few men searched Galleys Pirate Ship." The Mayor stated. "We found these aboard, as thanks to these two men I'd like to offer it to them as their reward for saving our town." He explained as the men that had brought in the sacks opened them to reveal piles of gold within each. Ichigo's jaw dropped as he saw the amount of treasure in the two sacks. Chad's mouth gaped open slightly as he was just as stunned as Ichigo was.

"Seriously, this is not needed." Ichigo stated rising from his chair. "We didn't do it for a reward; sure we might have asked for a boat we could borrow, but not this."

"It's too much." Chad agreed.

"We won't hear of it!" The Mayor laughed. "Take it, it's yours." He continued. "We'll even give you a ship, you could take Galleys ship but I doubt the two of you could get the thing moving on your own." Ichigo had to agree, a ship the size of Galleys would need a full crew to operate it properly something they did not have.

"I'll get provisions for the departure; there are too many people who don't prepare when going out to sea. You have to be careful out there." Silk exclaimed happily rushing off making Ichigo run a hand down his face.

"Come, I'll show you the ship that we can spare to give you, it's nothing fancy but it'll do." The Mayor assured the two as Chad picked up the two large sacks throwing them over his shoulder. "These men will help Silk with your provisions." The Mayor continued, ushering them out as the two men headed after Silk, the Mayor leading them down the street and towards the docks.

The boat that the Mayor had led them to had just been like the Mayor had said, it was nothing compared to Galleys massive ship docked nearby but there would be no way that Ichigo and Chad alone could operate the massive vessel of the pirates. It was a ship designed to house a full crew to effectively sail it. Plus with both of their inexperience in such things, they wouldn't have a clue on where to even start. The ship that they would be using, offered by the townspeople wasn't much in the way of design, or what Ichigo and Chad were familiar with. They were use to more sleek designs from the 21st century not the 'Legendary Age of Pirates' that Silk had informed them about. Kisuke would have a field day when they finally got in touch with him.

The boat was a relatively small vessel without any visible armaments aboard not that it mattered to either of them, its outward appearance was based on a saucepan on top of a frying pan painted blue and white. Ichigo jumped down from the dock landing on the deck and began exploring it while Chad dealt with the massive bags of treasure, now that they were at the docks it was revealed that there were a few more sacks awaiting them filled just like the two brought to Silk's restaurant. They had tried to turn down the extra sacks of treasure but the townspeople wouldn't see to it. It was awkward taking such riches for such a simple task but they couldn't very well refuse it. Ichigo took to exploring the inside of the ship as he went. Inside was an onboard kitchen which housed a chimney which from what Ichigo mused was also used as the ship's mast.

Seeing a hatch off to the side of the kitchen he pulled it open revealing a room below. Climbing down the rope ladder he looked around, there were two hammocks set up at the end of the room, at the opposite end there was a large net in place, obviously used to keep any stock in place but it was currently empty of anything.

_"We could put the sacks of gold in there I guess."_ He mused to himself as he continued to explore the small room. While it didn't hold much, a small separate room for a toilet but there was no bath or shower on the small vessel. Heading back up into the kitchen he felt the boat sway slightly and poked his head out the door to see that Chad had brought all the sacks of gold onto the boat. "There's a place down below we can store them for the time being." Ichigo told Chad getting a nod "Need a hand?"

"I'm good." Chad replied with a thumbs up as he began to maneuver the sacks of gold inside without much problem, for anyone else it might have been. Ichigo decided to leave him to it. Ichigo spotted Silk appraoching, the Mayor and the teen spoke for a few moments before heading down the dock; it seemed as if the whole town had gathered at the dock to see them off. Not that they had any clue as to where they were headed but figured Kisuke would want them to move on and see a bit more of this world. With a quick greeting Silk and the Mayor began to pass down the provisions that they had brought with them, several more sacks this time filled with all manner of food.

"Also this." The Mayor began tossing a rolled up parchment to Ichigo who caught it, looking at it quizzically. "Silk told me you didn't know the area, it's a map of the East Blue."

"Thanks, Silk." Ichigo smiled at the blonde who nodded, happy to help. "We owe you one."

"I'm pretty sure we owe you a couple for what you did, it's not every day a wanted man like Galley shows up." The Mayor laughed causing Ichigo to blink; there was a bounty on Galley's head? Well figuring that he was a pirate there might be a bounty system in place. Something he and Chad could look into maybe, they'd also need to find a place to transfer all this gold into the proper currency. They had no idea how long Kisuke was ditching them in this world, it was best to make a living as they went so that they atleast could survive out here.

"Well you can just turn in Galley to the proper authorities and fix the damage that I caused." Ichigo told them, figuring the reward should at least cover the cost of the house Ichigo had blasted him through. "Sorry about that by the way." Laughter erupted from the Mayor and Silk making Ichigo smile, they were nice people. But he and Chad had a job to do for Kisuke and couldn't exactly stick around. Plus, they were eager to explore. As much as it was a pain in the ass, it wasn't everyday you got to explore a new world. They had free range here.

"How much was Galley worth?" Chad questioned, having overheard the conversation and decided to ask.

"Five million berī." The Mayor stated pulling out a flier and handing it to Ichigo showing a wanted poster of Galley, Ichigo half expected it to be a crude drawing not an actual photograph, not thinking that the technology of this world had progressed that far since they were still using flintlocks but they would soon see for themselves. "He was a notorious pirate in the East Blue, you've done this sea a great service." The mayor bowed to the both of them.

"Can I keep this?" Ichigo questioned gesturing to the wanted poster.

"Of course." The Mayor smiled, Ichigo nodded his thanks.

_"Five million for a guy like that?"_ Ichigo pondered to himself as he looked down at the wanted poster. _"But he did try to ransack a village with a pirate crew and probably has done it in the past, maybe that somehow works into the actual bounty given?"_ Deciding he could think on it later he placed the wanted poster into his jacket.

"What are your plans now?" Silk questioned making Ichigo and Chad look up to her, before the two glanced at one another still unsure on the answer to that. They still hadn't heard from Kisuke and from that map that Ichigo had quickly glanced at it looked to be like they were going to need to travel to get anywhere and with the world covered mostly by ocean this boat would be their home for the time being. Ichigo just hoped that they could get into contact with Kisuke so that they could start to figure things out, and actually have an objective here.

"Now that we've got a boat, we'll make our way to the Grand Line." Ichigo stated recalling the name from their talk with Silk after they had dealt with the pirates. Figuring that it must be somewhere important if Silk believed that their powers were that of the Devil Fruit and they had come from the Grand Line, meaning there were others in this world with strange abilities. Kisuke would undoubtedly be interested in studying something like that so tracking down people with these Devil Fruit's would probably be something Kisuke would be interested in, and if at all possible track down an actual Devil Fruit that he could examine.

"You're heading back there then." Silk stated, believing the two were actually from the Grand Line having never witnessed powers like theirs before and believing them to be Devil Fruit abilities, neither of the two had confirmed it, but she had heard the stories about Devil Fruit users.

"You're welcome to join us." Chad spoke up surprising Ichigo slightly as he glanced at Chad, unsure what he was getting at. Sure she had held her own against those pirates, despite both himself and Chad keeping an eye on her so she wasn't overwhelmed but dragging her into this mess with Kisuke? But now that he thought about it, someone in this world surrounded by the ocean, with pirates and the chance at adventure. He could see why Chad had offered it to her; she was probably waiting for such an adventure to come her way.

"I'm sorry, I can't." Silk bowed to the two. "Thank you for the offer, but I don't think I'm ready." She told them honestly as she raised her head. "I would just drag you two down I saw the way you fought, you both protected me." Ichigo frowned slightly; he'd never say she couldn't come along because of something like that; she had the chance to develop her skill further. "But I'll get stronger." She declared with a confident glint in her eye as she raised her fist. "I'll train daily! I'll make sure that if any pirate comes to our village, that I'll be able to defend it!" She declared making Ichigo smile as Chad nodded.

"We'll keep you to that then." Ichigo stated. "We'll be sure to come back, make sure you're holding up on your end."

"Right!" Silk smiled happily.

There wasn't much more said between the two spiritual teens and the blonde girl they had met. Instead, they wished one another farewell, Chad and Ichigo untying the ropes from the dock the boat began to drift away. The wind caught the sails and the small boat began to drift further out to sea. Both Chad and Ichigo could see Silk waving from the docks until the island had disappeared from sight. Now that they were out at sea, business.

"Alright." Ichigo began looking at the map he had been given by the Mayor. "Which way to the Grand Line?" He spoke aloud, in truth he had no idea what island they were even on at the moment, hadn't even asked. He would have been too embarrassed to ask the Mayor or Silk, both of them had helped them already he didn't want to look like a fool in front of them, in hind sight he should have at least asked that, it would have helped them in the long run. Looking over to Chad, a silence rose up between the two teens before both hung their heads. "Yeah, I've got no idea either." He groaned.

"We'll figure it out." Chad stated getting a nod from Ichigo who tucked the map back into his jacket, it was useless until they actually had an idea on their actual location.


	2. Chapter 2

Kisuke sat in the back room of his small shop, simply sipping tea in the peace and quiet that was his humble abode, Tessai had taken Jinta and Ururu out for ice-cream, Yoruichi was following up leads on the former Substitute Shinigami, he had the entire shop to himself. He was feeling quite pleased with himself after having tasked Ichigo and Chad with the inspection of the anomaly that had appeared in the Dangai. Of course Kisuke was also doing his part in maintaining control over the rift and keeping tabs so that Soul Society didn't get over curious about the whole thing, he had even started on a way to completely eradicate the rift from Soul Society's radar and still accessible to him, but it would take some time to accomplish.

The two days that the teenage duo had been gone, Kisuke had not been in contact with them. Not for Ichigo's lack of trying upon first arriving and a handful of times afterwards but Kisuke figured that Chad and Ichigo needed to learn more about this new world on their own before Kisuke started to give them tasks to complete. They couldn't very well be good assistances if they were going in blind, he'd maybe give it a month or so before he started to require specimens or find out more about the world that they were in. Of course he'd be in contact before then, just to ease their minds that they weren't lost or anything. Had to keep their spirits up. It would be a long lasting assignment; he knew that before even considering the two for the mission.

Sipping at his tea, enjoying the peace and quiet he smiled; peace was something to take it when one had the chance. However as he sat enjoying the silence, he felt a disturbance, by the time the sliding door was kicked off its hinges it was too late to bail, well he still could've if he had really wanted to, he was Kisuke and he was awesome, but he was just real comfy. Instead he sat there with an all too goofy smile at the one person who had discovered his cover up. In truth, he hadn't expected it to be her of all people. Standing before him holding the lifeless form of a gigai body in complete likeness to one Ichigo Kurosaki was Tatsuki Arisawa. The martial artist was fuming as she stood in his now ruined doorway, he'd probably bill her for that. But there were more pressing matters, like his own chiseled jaw possibly being dislocated if her temper rose anymore.

"Hello Miss Arisawa, you look as fine as ever today." Kisuke greeted happily.

"How dumb do you think I am?!" Tatsuki roared throwing the lifeless body across the room, Kisuke ducking beneath it careful not to spill his tea, it was hot. "Parading this fake around, where the hell is the real Ichigo?!" She was definitely not happy, but by the way she had voiced her question, she wasn't aware that Chad was missing either. Someone seemed to be keeping an awful close eye on Ichigo, hmm?

"Well done Miss Arisawa, you have passed the test!" Kisuke declared.

"Eh? What test?" Tatsuki seemed to calm down slightly at this, perfectly in the right direction that Kisuke wanted, it meant his face wouldn't be pummelled the more calm she got.

"_What test in deed?" _Kisuke would have face palmed; he was literally going with the flow here so she wouldn't hit him, he was having such a peaceful day, being punched in the face would just ruin his entire stress free day. "I set this test in place, with full permission from both Ichigo and Sado." Tatsuki had to stop herself, Chad was missing also? He seemed to be acting as per his usual self, right? Quiet and just following along. She had been suspicious of Ichigo's behaviour the past two days and had come to the conclusion that something wasn't right with her old childhood friend, so she did the only thing she could think, punched him square in the face to get him to come to his sense figuring he was down about his loss of powers.

Usually Ichigo would had ducked, dodged or even defended himself. Instead, he ran off crying declaring that the big mean bully had punched him... Tatsuki hadn't seen Ichigo cry since they were kids not to mention her fist ached from the blow as if she had punched something other than human. Ichigo's face was not that hard, she had punched him just a few months ago before he had run off to save Orihime and he had powers then and she had barely hurt herself apart from the glass that had cut her hand when his head had smashed through it.

Yes Kisuke was a genius but placing a modified soul into a gigai, they still had their own personalities. While the specific soul inside the gigai had been taught Ichigo's personalities, it seemed that it couldn't exactly handle pain that came with the wrath of Tatsuki's fists. So with Tatsuki being the aggressive person that she was, having picked up on the oddness that was this fake Ichigo, acted the way she found appropriate, violence. Kisuke wanted to throw a tantrum at the moment, but he had already started a lie and he wasn't about to be caught in it. Lest he be punched in the face. So he continued.

"Well Miss Arisawa, please allow me to inform you of what has been happening with Sado and Ichigo since the events of this past winter." Kisuke smiled. "Please, take a seat." Tatsuki shuffled forward, taking a seat opposite the table, she didn't like where this was going, she watched from where she sat the retreat of the fake Ichigo. They all knew that Ichigo had lost his powers; she didn't understand what was going on. She hadn't spoken to anyone else about what she had discovered with Ichigo, having come straight to Kisuke with questions not wanting to concern anyone. "Comfy?" A glare from Tatsuki only made his smile widen. "Would you like some tea?"

"Just get on with it." Tatsuki sighed with the same impatience that Ichigo tended to have around the former Captain.

"Very well, as you know Ichigo lost his powers during the final battle with Aizen, using the Final Getsuga Tenshou his powers were completely removed from him." Tatsuki nodded, already knowing this Ichigo hadn't kept much from them after he had the time to explain everything, from his becoming a Soul Reaper to his final battle with Aizen and everything in between. "What you don't know, is that for the past few weeks Yoruichi and I have been re-training Ichigo in his powers." Tatsuki's head shot up as she heard that. "Sado has also been an active participant in aiding in Ichigo's regrowth."

"Why haven't they said anything, even Orihime and Ishida have kept quiet on this." Tatsuki declared, the feeling of being left out again began to creep up on her causing her to clench her fists. She hated being lied to, and to find out that they were lying to them again?

"Ah, that is because neither were aware of this." That stumped Tatsuki as well, why would Chad be the only one to know? Was Ichigo trying to keep secrets from all of them now? Seeing the emotions pass through her eyes from, relief, to grief, to anger Kisuke continued. "It is not either Ichigo's nor Sado's fault that this had been kept a secret from you Tatsuki, it was I who instructed the secrecy this time around." He informed her.

"Why?" Tatsuki questioned, her voice showing her confusion. Wouldn't his Shinigami friends in Soul Society want to know he had regained his powers, even Ishida would be happy to hear Ichigo had recovered his powers and Orihime would be ecstatic!

"Simply because, I do not believe that Ichigo should be fighting battles that are not his own, the Soul Society has already dragged him and your friends deep into their mess more than what they should have. I resigned to keep Ichigo's powers a secret once more so he wouldn't be dragged into unnecessary fights." Kisuke explained in all seriousness. "Ichigo's powers are still currently far below what he was capable of as a Shinigami, his powers are growing and I've taken steps to help him grow further, to reach his former potential. But until the time comes that he has reached his former strength I do not intend to disclose this information to anyone, not even his closest friends." Tatsuki frowned, she didn't like the whole secrets thing and if she hadn't acted the way that she had she wouldn't have known about this either.

"So I passed this 'test' huh?" Tatsuki questioned, a pissed off expression coming to her face at discovering the lie Kisuke had told her. "There was no test, was there?" Kisuke tilted his bucket hat down slightly.

"No, but I couldn't very well turn you away after you found out about the gigai." Tatsuki clicked her teeth in annoyance as she turned her head away. "But I do have something that might remedy the situation that we have found ourselves in." Tatsuki still turned away from him muttering something inaudible under her breath. "What was that, I didn't quite catch that?"

"Just spit it out already!" Tatsuki snapped getting a grin from Kisuke in return.

"Want to re-become the Karakura-Raizer Beast once more?" The instant glare gave him his answer as he chuckled, waving the idea off. "Well, not exactly becoming the superhero only spoken in hushed whispers by a select few." He began with a slight chuckle, Tatsuki's cheeks heating up in embarrassment he recalled he had made trading cards of the embarrassing group, until Tatsuki burnt them all. "Remember when you used your abilities as Karakura-Raizer Beast?" Tatsuki groaned but nodded, she hated anything that had to do with that lame team that she had been roped into joining with Keigo and Chizuru, doing her best to forget about the whole ordeal. "Well the Karakura-Raizer watches that you all used simply brought forth your latent spiritual abilities."

"You're saying that the watches didn't give us those powers, that they simply brought our powers out?" Tatsuki question, making sure she understood the situation. If that was true, then she actually had the strength she had used as the Karakura-Raizer Beast and just hadn't been able to use it like she had when using the device.

"Ingenious right?" Kisuke questioned with a grin. "After the watches were deactivated, it simply meant that your powers went back into their dormant states so that you couldn't freely use them. With a few days, this can change." Tatsuki rubbed her brow slightly as she listened to Kisuke offer her a chance to be like her friends, maybe to even grow stronger and help them if they ever needed it. She had felt so left out, being on of Ichigo's and Orihime's closest friends, just to be ignored when they were out their fighting. She was a fighter yet they didn't treat her like one. While she was already convinced that she was going to do this, she had one more question. "Just where in the hell are Ichigo and Chad?"

"Ahahaha... you didn't forget that did you?" Kisuke chuckled dryly receiving a glare in return. "Alright, I'll tell you." Kisuke stated. "However, before we continue, nothing here can be leaked from this shop. You are not to tell anyone, if the very fact that Ichigo has regained a semblance of his powers will warrant an investigation by Soul Society." Tatsuki nodded immediately, she didn't know much about the Soul Society, but she didn't trust them like Ichigo and Orihime did. "Then I'm putting my trust in you Miss Arisawa."

"Just Tatsuki is fine." Tatsuki huffed, gripping her ankles as she looked at him. "Now where are they?"

"In another dimension." Tatsuki had to blink once, then twice, her mouth tried to coherent words but she hadn't been expecting a direct answer like that, another dimension? That was actually possible? "Once I believe you've got a hold on your new powers in a few days, you can go join them." He smiled happily.

"I didn't sign up for that!?" Tatsuki shouted only getting a grin from Kisuke.

"Neither did they." He assured. "But, you have a debt to repay for breaking my door down." Tatsuki sweat dropped at that. "Not to mention, the training debt you'll incur." Tatsuki groaned, she should have known he'd be playing an angle when offering to train her into her spiritual powers. "Now, come along, we've got to get you all trained up." He stated as he rose from where he was standing and gesturing for Tatsuki to follow after him, Tatsuki groaned as she got to her feet only to follow Kisuke's joyful whistling as he led her below to the subterranean training ground.

* * *

"I'm dying." Ichigo groaned holding his stomach as he leaned over the railing; Chad was standing off to the side. Ichigo had awoken with a rather sudden case of sea sickness and had been hurling most of the morning. Not the best thing, but he figured it must have been something that he ate not that they had a lot left after leaving Silk's town. They had been fine for the first few days that they had been at sea but, during their week of travel they had failed to find any sort of land since neither of the two had a shred of navigation sense between them so they were sailing blind out here on the open ocean. This just meant that their supplies were running low; really low. Ichigo had made the fatal mistake of eating what looked to be an edible piece of bread as a midnight snack. It was not. This was the cause of his sickness.

"You'll survive." Chad stated getting a groan from Ichigo as he glanced up at him; the large teen looked down with a smile before offering a thumbs up. "But we need to find food." Chad continued, the large teen spent most of his days trying to catch fish with one of the fishing rods aboard but so far there hadn't been much to catch, they had plenty of water aboard but they were lacking in food supplies. Their first night at sea they had come across a storm, it had taken them everything just to make sure that they didn't capsize. Once the storm passed, they were thoroughly lost despite not having a clue before then. With not a speck of navigation sense between the two they had been idly drifting hoping for any kind of land mass or another boat that might be able to offer them assistance, so far nothing. Chad had taken the roll of their cook for the time being, having hopelessly witnessed Ichigo's effort to do so.

It was something that both teens had come to learn; here in this world their need to eat was much larger than back home. They didn't know the reason as to why this was but if they didn't eat a sizeable meal, they felt their reiatsu levels weaken. They didn't know why this was, and their efforts to reach Kisuke fell on deaf ears so they figured it was just how this world works and they just had to eat more to replenish their lost reiatsu. This was the main cause of their current food shortage; they were going to need larger supplies of food if they were going to continue on like this. All the gold that was taken from Galley that was secured down below was worthless unless they found someplace to buy food.

"Unless we've been going around in circles, I hope we'll be coming up to an island soon." Ichigo stated resting on the railing on the side of the ship, during their voyage he had tried to make any sense out of the map that Silk had given them. Chad stood not far from Ichigo a small frown on his face as he looked up to the sky, there wasn't a bird in sight having been hearing seagulls for the majority of the day, from what Chad had seen of the map the islands in the East Blue allowed for the birds to fly from island to island. Frowning slightly, something was scaring the animals off. A high pitched whistle reached both of their ears, as the whistle grew louder the pitch decreased. Shooting his gaze up Ichigo saw a massive projectile heading straight for them.

"Chad get us out of here!" Ichigo ordered as he recovered from his sickness, the situation to dire to worry about what prior meal he was going to see next. Chad's feet glowed green with a luminescence light as the large teen appeared at the end of the boat as the whistling grew louder and louder as the projectile grew closer and closer. Chad's entire right arm morphed to fit that of Brazo Derecha de Gigante.

"Eldiretco!" Chad called out as he released a huge blast of spiritual energy into the water sending their ship rocketing forward, the force of the powerful blast was enough to send them flying out of the water and into the air. Chad was forced to grip onto the edge of the railing, his hand leaving imprints from how hard he was holding as the massive projectile that came from above impacted the water in a massive fiery explosion. Ichigo had to brace himself behind the cabin gripping onto a rope connected to the sails so that he wouldn't be thrown overboard, despite him shielding himself behind the cabin he still felt the force of the explosion. As the boat crashed back down into the water, massive waves threatened to capsize them, but with a few more blasts of power from Chad he destroyed the waves before they could cause any real damage.

"Nice one Chad." Ichigo breathed out as Chad simply nodded that it was fine. Ichigo and Chad looked to the impact of the explosion, they hadn't expected such an occurrence, but it looked to be that they were the intended target of the airborne projectile. The impact could still be seen, the rough waters now produced because of the blast was sending their small ship rocking on the waves but now there was no real threat to them capsizing any longer. "We need to figure out who was firing on us."

"Agreed." Chad nodded. "That's no ordinary fire power." Ichigo had to agree, such a blast would decimate a small town if not a small island, if it was aimed at them it meant that whoever had the control of such a weapon weren't exactly the friendliest, they themselves weren't flying a pirate flag since they weren't pirates, and they had no reason to be targeted by anyone. Ichigo doubted it was Galley trying to get revenge, by now he would have been handed over to the Marines by Silk's village and he didn't look competent enough to escape. But someone out there had directly aimed for their small ship. Chad kept Brazo Derecha de Gigante active just encase they needed another quick escape.

That's when a massive shadow appeared alongside the starboard side of their boat, Chad readied his next blast should Ichigo give the order for them to get out of the area. Ichigo watched from the side of their small vessel as a massive shadow beneath the water's surface began to form as whatever it was rose to the surface. The water began to swell even higher than the side of their boat resulting in a massive uproar of pressure sending waves barrelling against the ship causing it to rock once more, however not as much as earlier from the blast. As the two looked up at what had risen from the surface, they had to blink at what they were seeing. This couldn't be real...

"You have got to be kidding me!" Ichigo roared at the massive dinosaur, a Plesiosaur to be exact, its large form was much bigger than their measly little boat, it being a light gray in colour; it had a long neck, a broad body, four large flippers and a relatively short tail. Atop its head was a metal helmet that was strapped tightly by four straps, three around its neck and one under its jaw. On the helmet was an obvious pirate symbol, that of a white skull, six legs and with red claws. Both Ichigo and Chad had to crane their necks to look up at the prehistoric creature.

"Ichigo." Chad simply stated getting a nod from Ichigo as they observed the pirate symbol atop the dinosaur's helmet. It was clear that this dinosaur wasn't just a mere coincidence straight after the explosion that they had been the target of, it was probably sent to destroy any survivors after the blast, meaning that this dinosaur was a part of the crew that had attacked them.

"We must be near its home." Ichigo stated as a grin came to his face. "Which means it's going to lead us straight to the bastards that fired that giant bomb at us." The dinosaur turned to look down at the boat now beneath it, seeing its target of survivors it lunged its head straight for those on deck only for Chad to leap forward, the shield of Brazo Derecha de Gigante having morphed from his arm. The Dinosaur crashed it's head straight into Chad's shield, the large teen skidding back a few feet before he pushed forward forcing the Dinosaur back with his inhuman strength.

"Don't let it go Chad!" Ichigo shouted as he leapt over Chad's shoulder and ran along its neck, Chad himself twisted to the side of the plesiosaur grabbing its massive neck in his arms and holding tight. The dinosaur tried to struggle in his grip, but Chad was too strong, even for the prehistoric creature. Ichigo ran down its neck, his substitute badge was already in his hand, instead of the black tsuba forming like it had in his fight against the Pirate Galley, the badge itself shifted. The badge grew a medium-sized, black, machete-like blade, with a silver edge, round hilt, simple white cloth-wrapping and flat base. The badge itself became the sword guard, with a new black cross marking on it. Ichigo had no intention of killing the Dinosaur, just wounding it. Wounded animals tended to return home meaning that they just had to follow it to find the culprits.

Leaping from the dinosaur's neck he turned in the air, holding his newly formed blade out to the side before flooding it with Spiritual Pressure, while he could perform a Getsuga in his new form, it was considerably lacking in power, despite it's lack of strength it was still a formidable technique to use. But for this, he would have to degrade its power so that it wouldn't kill the dinosaur. Blue energy gathered around his blade in a familiar way, nothing compared to his prior power but it was still the same technique. Ichigo lowered the power, no longer having the endless amounts of Reiatsu like he once had he found the smaller amount of his new strength easy to control.

"Getsuga Tensho!" With a swing of his blade, the crescent blue wave shot forward colliding with the Dinosaur in the back, the howl of the beast echoed out as Chad released its neck. Ichigo used the luminescent light to shoot forth from his position in the air and landed on the deck of their boat, skidding across the ground as they turned to face the Dinosaur. It's cry last some time and Ichigo thought that he may have overdone it, he had intended to just injure the dinosaur not kill it. The Plesiosaur saw let out another anguished cry as it began to turn away from them. Turning to Chad he raised his hand up the larger teen returning the gesture and the two clapped their hands together before turning back to the dinosaur. "That's not good." Ichigo stated seeing the dinosaur lowering its body into the water to submerge itself.

"If it goes under we won't be able to follow." Chad agreed as he rushed along the boat, a small pile of ropes had been aboard and Chad had brought them up from the cargo area earlier. Acting quickly Chad formed as lasso with the rope before swinging it over his head, Ichigo braced himself holding onto the railing as Chad threw the rope. The lasso successfully went over the long neck of the dinosaur and Chad pulled back on the rope causing the dinosaur to let out another cry as the boat jolted with immense force from the dinosaur. The Plesiosaur struggled under the rope thrashing about as it turned back to face the two, Ichigo swung his blade out the same blue glow originating from the blade from before and Chad's right right shoulder split into an exhaust with blue spiritual power ready to burst should it try to attack them again.

Instead it looked timid and faced forward before swimming through the waves. Ichigo and Chad gave a glance at one another before letting their powers subside believing that the Dinosaur would simply lead them back to where it came from, neither of them knew a dinosaur's thinking methods, and it might just be creatures of this world but this plesiosaur seemed to understand that they were stronger than itself and simply followed the strongest. Chad tied the rope to the rail of the bow now no longer needing to restrain the dinosaur.

"Once we arrive, I think we should destroy whatever it was that shot at us." Ichigo stated leaning against the rail while crossing his arms. "Something that destructive in the hands of a pirate. It's not good." He stated.

"Are you sure we should take such action?" Chad questioned, causing Ichigo to frown slightly. Both were simply visitors to this world, they had no idea how their actions would impact it. Should they act or not? They had not been given any clear instruction on what to do by Kisuke, they still hadn't heard from him. But they were here. Both knew that that explosion could have major consequences should it be left unchecked, especially in the hands of a murderous pirate. "Stupid question?" Chad asked with a small smile.

"Yeah, stupid question." Ichigo smirked in return. "Kisuke sent us here, with no direction let alone rules." He shrugged. "If he wanted us not to get involved, he should have said so. If we can save some lives while we're here, why shouldn't we?" Ichigo stated. "Besides." He continued. "It's not like we over thought dealing with Galley."

"True." Chad nodded in agreement. He had already known the response that Ichigo would have given, there was no way Ichigo would have left this weapon undealt with even if Kisuke had given them direct orders not to interfere in this world's affairs. That was why Chad respected Ichigo; he would always do the right thing, damned the consequences or the rules. So much had happened in the last year and a half since Ichigo had gained his powers, everything Ichigo had done simply proved Chad's reasoning. Chad was just happy to have been able to witness his friend stay true to himself throughout this drastic change in his life, and he was still the same guy that offered to have his back that day beneath the bridge. The two simply relaxed on the deck, leaning up either side of the railing as the dinosaur led them through the water.

The short voyage wasn't much more than an an hour before an island came into view.

"Land." Chad spoke happily to Ichigo as the orange haired teen looked out over the ocean to see an island in the distance; however what he noticed was a gigantic tower rising up into the sky from the island itself. Standing at the bow of the boat with Chad, he could see that the dinosaur was becoming exhausted from its struggle of its wound that Ichigo's Getsuga had dealt it. Deciding that they no longer needed the rope or the dinosaur he untied the rope from the railing causing the dinosaur to glance back at them in confusion. Both simply stared at it for a short while before it began to submerge itself in the water and the two watched it swim off, the shadow of the beast disappearing beneath the waves as it disappeared. The two waited for a few minutes, cautious if it would come back and attack them, but when it was all clear the two readied themselves as they approached the island.

"Ichigo, there's a beach." Chad spoke up as they grew closer and closer to the island to make out the actual land mass, the massive tower on the island towering high above into the sky similar to a skyscraper. Ichigo nodded as he adjusted the rudder, now that they had set the plesiosaur free they had to control the ship not that Ichigo minded. They soon came ashore with the boat pushing up through the sand. It would be an easy enough feat for Ichigo and Chad to push it back out into the water, but for now both were just happy to be ashore having spent the last several days lost out at sea. Stepping off their small vessel was a feeling neither of them could describe, the fact that solid ground was beneath them and not the constant rocking that their small ship had, it was undeniably the best feeling either had felt in a while.

The beach itself was set in a cove surrounded by large cliffs on either side, a small path that would lead up into the island itself curving up through the trees. Ichigo stretched his arms and collapsed onto his back on the sand, simply glad for the solid ground while Chad decided to look around the beach. However upon spotting two men, Chad let out a frown. The two men were a ways away down the beach having come to a stop as they examined the duo, unsure of how to proceed with the two new arrivals. The two once more began their approach to the group and as they came closer Chad could see that they were without a doubt pirates, the one with the blue bandana even had the same symbol on his bandana that the Plesiosaur had on its helmet, they were in the same pirate crew and it was clear their attitude was quickly changing upon approaching the two, having more than likely thought that they were simple townsfolk of the islands village.

"Ichigo." Chad stated, his voice stern causing Ichigo to sit up and look in the direction that Chad was looking to see the two approaching from along the beach. Jumping to his feet, dusting himself off from the sand he cupped a hand around his mouth.

"Oi!" Ichigo shouted turning towards them. "Are you the morons that fired on our..." He glanced at Chad. "Is it a boat or a ship?" Chad thought for a moment before shrugging. "Boat will do." He nodded to himself. "Did you shoot our boat!?" The two pirates glanced at one another before drawing their swords; however before they began their charge to attack, the pirate with the bandanna yelped in pain. Ichigo and Chad blinked slightly in confusion at the yelp only for the two pirates to show what had caused the sudden disruption. With the two now out of the way, both Ichigo and Chad could see who had stabbed the pirate. What surprised them was that it was a child in a set of armour holding a spear.

"What the hell is that?" The Bandanna wearing pirate shouted getting the other to turn to the little attacking warrior. The armour wearing child thrust up with the spear again narrowly missing the bandanna pirate's face by inches, the child clearly had no qualms about putting the pirate down if they had the ability to do so, it was clear that they did not. The bandanna pirate grabbed the shaft of the spear ripping it from the armour clad grip as the other pirate grabbed the armoured child. The visor was lifted up in the struggle revealing the panicked face of the young girl. Neither Chad or Ichigo hesitated, the buzz of the green luminescent light was the only evidence the two had moved.

"Give back Papa you pirates!" The girl cried out causing the two to laugh before Chad appeared beside the bandanna wearing pirate surprising him before a powerful punch connecting with his face sending him flying out over the ocean, his body skimming across the waves before sinking down beneath the surface. Ichigo himself appeared before the young girl surprising her as he elbowed the other pirate in the face sending him reeling backwards, his feet caught in the sand sending him toppling back but not before Chad caught him effortlessly holding him up and off of his feet.

"Are you alright?" Ichigo questioned kneeling before the young girl who looked up at him. Ichigo tended to have a way of comforting young children, Chad mused that it was because of his sisters. All the young ghosts that Ichigo had helped over the years made it that Ichigo was a good older brother figure for anyone younger than him and needing someone to look up to. "You're not hurt are you?" The girl shook her head causing Ichigo to offer a small smile before placing a hand on the girl's head. "Good to hear."

"You're really brave." Chad stated making the young girl tilt her visor up slightly to look up at the large teen who was still holding the pirate in his grip, she was awed at his size never having seen someone that large before.

"But you shouldn't put yourself in unnecessary danger like that, why did you attack those pirates?" Ichigo questioned, concerned that there was more to this than what they already knew. Pirates were clearly here on this island, that massive tower seemed to be the weapon that had fired upon them. By the looks of things, it didn't look like it was safe to be on this island. "You said something about your Father?"

"Those pirates took him!" She shouted turning from Ichigo and grabbing the spear that had been discarded by the pirate before pointing it towards the pirate in Chad's grip who shrieked at the sudden pointy end of the weapon was thrust pat his face, Chad having moved the pirate at the last moment. Ichigo scowled as Chad kept the pirate out of reach of the spear as the young girl kept trying to prod at him. Placing a hand on the young girl's shoulder to stop her attacks she looked up at the orange haired teen only to tremble slightly, she had thought he was nice but the look on his face was scary.

"Where is her father?" Ichigo growled slightly as he stared at the pirate who glared back at him.

"You'll suffer for this! I swear the Captain will kill the entire town!" Ichigo glanced to Chad who nodded, seeing that they weren't going to get any information from the pirate Chad swung back; the man was practically weightless to the gentle giant. The young girl watched as the large teen threw the pirate like he was a ball. The scream of the man could be heard as he flew across the ocean before he was out of sight. Turning she looked up at the two with wide eyes, just who were these two?

"Medaka!" A voice called out making Chad and Ichigo look up the path that led into the island to see an elderly man making his way towards the beach Ichigo glanced down at the girl that had reacted to the call, her name being the obvious one that had been called out. Upon seeing the people on shore with his granddaughter the man increased his pace, fearful his granddaughter had gotten into trouble with the pirates. Ichigo and chad followed Medaka who ran towards her grandfather, hopefully they could find out what was really going on from the elderly man.

* * *

"I see." Skid breathed out a breath of smoke as they sat in his home, lowering his cigarette. Skid had offered them a meal, however upon seeing their state of poverty they didn't want to intrude on the small family's food rations. Ichigo and Chad may have needed supplies for their boat, but that didn't mean that they were going to make these people starve because of it. Skid was a slightly aged man. He wore a red sleeveless jacket and hat of the same colour; underneath his jacket he wore a blue shirt. "So that firing earlier was aimed at your ship, whether intentionally or not I wouldn't know." He commented after hearing their story of why they had come to this island, in search of the ones that attacked them. Ichigo and Chad hadn't mentioned their subduing of the dinosaur not sure if the old man would believe them, but it was clear that the pirates on the island were responsible for the weapon. That wasn't even the worst of it in their minds.

"You're young, probably intent on seeing the pirates brought to justice." Skid began. "But I must ask you please leave this island." Skid told him. "They will return soon and they will not take lightly to what you have already done." He bowed to the two, Chad and Ichigo frowned, they were truly afraid of what these pirates were doing. "Until a few weeks ago, this island was a peaceful paradise. But..." He trailed off.

"The pirates came and took it over." Ichigo stated clenching his hands into fists, just because they had the manpower and ability to do so, didn't give them the right to trample all over the peace that these people had before they arrived. The pirates of this world were truly despicable from what they had seen so far. "From what I saw of the town when we passed through, they took every able body that they could find to build that huge god awful contraption that is currently an overbearing eye saw." He continued. "If I'm right, that was the thing that fired on us earlier today." Skid nodded in confirmation.

"Then we do what we came here to do." Chad stated. "We now just have a more meaningful reason to do so." He added getting a nod from Ichigo, they had simply wanted to destroy the weapon so it wouldn't harm innocents, but it was already doing that. The pirates were using these villagers as slaves to build their weapon.

"That weapon shouldn't be in the hands of anyone." Ichigo spoke aloud. "Creating such a thing just causes problems." He stated. "I don't know much about this place yet, but the weapon shouldn't be aloud to exist." Skid nodded softly, fully agreeing with Ichigo's words. He was wise for his age.

"I can't force you to leave, and from where I'm sitting you've already made up your mind." Skid began. "The Pirate Captain Ganzack and his thugs are nothing short of monsters that came here to enslave us to build his weapon." Skid told them. "They have leagues of men, when there is only two of you." Ichigo and Chad glanced at one another, from what they knew of the pirates from the first two they had fought, they weren't much to deal with. Didn't mean they were going to underestimate the pirates, after all there was only two of them.

"We'll get it done." Ichigo spoke up as he rose from the chair he was sitting in. Skid lowered his head, he knew that he couldn't stop them, but that didn't mean he was happy to watch the two young men walk into their deaths. Before Skid could speak up, to try and persuade them to leave a massive boom echoed out over the island causing Ichigo to look out the window to the massive spire that had been built onto the island, it had been fired once again. A massive plume of black smoke emitted from the tip as another missile was shot into the sky with tremendous power. The loud whistle that accompanied the falling projectile echoed out all over the island before the ground shook beneath them as the missile hit somewhere on the island itself.

"It was definitely them." Chad commented as Ichigo nodded in agreement, there was no doubt in their minds that it was the same weapon.

"Thanks for the info old man." Ichigo told him. "We'll deal with these pirates and be out of your hair before long." Medaka grabbed her spear and went to run out the door before she was hefted off her feet by Chad who frowned as the girl struggled in his grip.

"Let me go!" Medaka cried. "I'm gonna go save Papa!" Chad frowned, he couldn't in good conscience let this little girl go off and fight pirates, no matter the reason. Looking to Ichigo for support the orange haired Captain let out a sigh.

"Listen." Ichigo began causing Medaka turn to him with Chad's help. "If we can't rescue your father, everything on our ship is yours and trust me we just picked up a boat load of treasure, so if we can't get him back. It's all yours." Medaka's eyes widened at the promise as Chad gave her a reassuring smile. "But we can't go ahead if we have to look out for you. I promise that you'll get your father back before the day is out, along with the rest of the town's people." Ichigo told her. "Can I trust you to stay here?" He question raising his fist in front of him.

"Make sure my Papa comes home safe." Medaka stated returning the gesture and bumping her fist with his getting a nod from Ichigo before both he and Chad exited the building. The two headed up the street that led towards the large tower that was the eyesore of the village. As they walked through the town, they gained the attention of the elderly and children having been left alone by the pirates, all of them were confused at the duo's presence but they made no attempt to interact with either of them. As they passed under the large structures that held the enormous tower up, they entered into an area where it was clear there was work being done. Tracks with carts on them were being pushed around, numerous pirates barking orders at men and women who were being pushed to their limits. It was surprising to the two that there were no guard's stationed but they were probably cocky enough to believe that no one would stand against them.

"Dynamite." Chad stated searching a cart pulling out a red stick with a fuse on the end of it. "The weapon would undoubtedly need a source of ignition." Ichigo nodded in understanding as he walked into the mess that was the so called construction, cells were organized for the workers and those inside looked worse for wear. Each one gave him a weary glance before shying away; the weeks they spent here had obviously not been kind to them. Ichigo didn't see any kind of locking mechanism on the gate and surveying the gate it was clear that it was intended to be lifted by chain's.

"Who are you!?" A Pirate shouted causing the other dozens of pirates to gather around weapons drawn.

"I'm looking for Ganzack." Ichigo told him. "Anyone know where I can find him?"

"Like we'd tell you!? You can get to work like the others!" Chad deciding he didn't want to continue the conversing with the pirates picked up a cart full of Dynamite with one arm surprising the pirates. Rearing back he threw it at them surprising them further at his monstrous strength. Ichigo with practiced precision reached out with his newly found power and drew on the power of the soul within a stick of dynamite in the airborne crate. The explosion was massive and sent a shock wave over the entire area. Panic erupted among the pirates as fire spread across the area, explosions of the other sets of dynamite started to erupt through the construction.

"Chad, can you get everyone out of the cages?" Ichigo questioned getting a nod from the larger teen who walked towards the massive gate, crouching down and digging his fingers beneath the metal before beginning to lift the gate up. Ichigo meanwhile summoned his blade from his badge and was cutting down any pirate that came near. The prisoner's were soon exiting beneath the gate as Chad held it above his head. Ichigo was surprised when the prisoner's took up arms beside him and helped fend off the pirates. "_They must have needed this."_ Ichigo thought as he watched the prisoners do whatever they could to help their rescuers.

Once all the prisoners were free the current pirate force was dealt with the prisoners now armed with fallen pirate weapons some even having sticks of dynamite followed Ichigo and Chad out to a massive courtyard where a gathered force of numerous pirates were lying in wait for them, Ichigo already standing before them. One was clearly the Captain. He was standing before the others, anger clearly showing on his face. He was a average sized man who wore a crab-like armour on his back attached with shoulder gauntlets with large crab claws. He also wore a red shirt underneath his armour, blue pants, and a blue cape. Ganzack had purple hair tied into a ponytail and a purple beard. He had a red ring around each of his eyes and an X-shaped scar on his left temple. He also wore a black pirate hat with his jolly roger on it.

"I'm guessing that you're this Captain Ganzack?" Ichigo called over to him, Ganzack looked over at him.

"Just who are you people?" Ganzack questioned irritably, clearly not happy about the unexpected rebellion that had taken place.

"You happened to fire on the wrong boat this morning." Ignoring the question of who he was, Ichigo spoke. "You see, Chad and I have a problem with that massive cannon of yours." Ganzack smirked as he looked over the prisoners that had made the massive weapon. All of them were scared of him, he could see it in their eyes, and their defiance was probably an act of these two unfamiliar faces. But they were greatly outnumbered and Ganzack knew that there was no way these morons could do anything to them. Despite their newly gained weapons that they had gathered when they had been saved it didn't help in the face the massive force of the bloodthirsty pirates gathered before them.

"You need to learn your place, you damn villagers!" Ganzack shouted. "I still need workers so I won't kill all of you!" He laughed only to hear nothing but his own laughter. "Laugh!" He ordered getting his crew behind him to do exactly that, each one erupting into laughter, despite it being forced and because of fear of the man that stood before them. "I am the great Pirate General Ganzack! I'm not the same as other pirates. Other pirates only steal fortunes, but as for me…"

"I don't care what kind of pirate you are!" Ichigo growled causing Ganzack to recoil slightly, the teen standing before him held no such fear in his eyes as he stood before the massive force of pirates before him, neither did the large teen at his side. "I'm not here for your damn life story! I'm here to beat your ass and destroy that damn canon!" All the prisoners that they had freed were left completely stunned at the orange haired teen's sudden outburst. Ganzack was speechless for a moment before he started laughing.

"If you're so eager to die! Then come on!" He shouted, his crab like armour shoot up from his shoulders forming large pincer like weapons. Ganzack flew forward as the other pirates behind him charged into battle, Chad dashed forward past Ganzack intercepting the other pirates as Ganzack's pincer struck out at Ichigo who clashed his own blade with the pincer like weapon before pushing it back, Ganzack recoiling slightly. All of the pirates were swarmed by the prisoners, explosions rocking the courtyard as pirate's screamed. Chad led the prisoners into battle, not having expected to do such when he woke up that morning but he hadn't been expecting to see a dinosaur either.

Ganzack's stumbled back as he stared into the piercing brown eyes of Ichigo, he had expecting hesitation from the boy, not calm determination. Readying both of his pincer like weapons he unleashed a barrage of attacks with both, however not a single one hit as Ichigo seemingly moved out of the way parrying a few closer calls. The teen ability with his sword astounded Ganzack, his own mechanised weapons were beyond that of conventional weapons but the boy seemingly anticipated all of their movements. Ganzack had never seen a swordsman like him before. Jumping back, Ganzack unleashed the machine guns attached to the crab legs around his torso, it didn't bother the former Shinigami in the slightest easily dodging them with his feet alight of green light.

"Enough." Ichigo stated appearing beside Ganzack already mid swing with his leg, the kick was empowered with the same light that allowed him and Chad to use high speed movement. The blow landed across Ganzack's stomach sending him flying back over the courtyard, his armour cracking from the impact and falling from his frame in ruined pieces. Ganzack was completely stunned as he collapsed to his knees from the blow. The battle around them came to a stop, the townspeople were completely speechless as this orange haired teen dealt with the nightmare that had plagued them for weeks. The other pirates were just as stunned that their captain had been defeated.

"Just who are you!" Ganzack shouted getting to his feet seeing all his crew just standing there he glared at them all, none of the prisoners even housed sever wounds as if his crew had been taking pity on them. Ganzack backed away from the the teen, stunned that his present crew had in fact betrayed him. Gritting his teeth he pulled two pistols from his hips and aimed them at Ichigo the one who had caused all of this. He had been so close to his plan of creating his weapon to take to the Grand Line yet this boy had taken that all away from him!

"You think that you can oppose the Great Pirate Ganzack! You pitiful fools! Do you have any idea who I am? You'll all pay for this! I swear it!" He shouted before a large explosion of dust engulfed him as the ground began to shake beneath their feet. The town's people were blown back from the force of the explosion while Chad and Ichigo weren't bothered in the slightest. The whole island itself was shaking and as the dust began to clear they figured out why. The large cannon that had fired on them that day wasn't connected to the island, it was connected to the ship that was built into the island that was now parting from it.

"I'm guessing that's what you call a battleship." Chad started walking up beside Ichigo.

"Is that what we were making?" A man from the town questioned in horror.

"You fools have dared to oppose me!" Ganzack shouted from a terminal on board the warship. "Now you will all sink to the bottom of the sea! FIRE!" He shouted as he pressed down on a button, obviously one that controls the massive towering canon now aboard his ship. The roar of the ignition kicked in, Ichigo glanced at Chad and nodded; the larger teen had no qualms about what he was suppose to do. Brazo Derecha de Gigante encased his right arm, the end of the extension on Sado's shoulder opened charging mass amounts of spiritual energy similar to that of a flaming exhaust. He releases a huge blast of spiritual energy, which he can either use to augment his punches or fire as a concentrated medium to long-range attack.

"El Directo." Chad roared, throwing his right fist into a punch resulting in releasing the massive blast of spiritual energy. The blast roared across the open courtyard, across the gap between the island and ship, crashing into the massive pillar that made up the firing chamber of the canon. The blast crashed through the firing chamber and it was moments later when the ship exploded. The shockwave was immense as prisoners and pirates alike scrambled for cover from the blast. Ichigo and Chad watched the pillar collapse down upon itself, the ship wouldn't survive the impact and they believed neither would Ganzack having witnessed him be engulfed in the flames of the explosion. As the explosion died down Ichigo walked to the edge of the courtyard that now overlooked the ocean.

Ichigo scanned the water's surface for Ganzack and found him floating on a piece of floating debris. He was glaring up at Ichigo as he cursed, Ichigo unable to hear what he was saying. That's when he saw it, a large form beginning to surface from below as the Plesiosaur, the dinosaur breached the surface right behind Ganzack. Ganzack himself looked relieved to see the dinosaur before spotting the angered look on the dinosaurs face, it wasn't long before the Plesiosaur lunged forward devouring the pirate Captain. Ichigo wasn't sure as to why the dinosaur had turned on it's master, perhaps it simply no longer wanted to serve. The dinosaur looked up at Ichigo and Chad, showing them that it no longer had it's helmet with the pirate symbol atop of it, before it once more submerged beneath the ocean's surface.

"I think it was thanking us." Chad stated. "Like it didn't have the strength to be free on its own."

"Maybe." Ichigo nodded. "It's done now, that's all that I care about." Ichigo glanced back over his shoulder to see pirates and former prisoners alike. There was a tension in the air, everyone was nervous on what the other side would do. The townspeople had been captured by the pirates and detained under Ganzack's order. "Alright listen up!" Ichigo shouted gaining everyone's attention. "I'm giving you pirate's one chance to get off of this island. It's clear you were afraid of Ganzack, but you no longer serve under him. Leave, never return here." He ordered.

Not a single pirate dared deny Ichigo's order; the large teen by Ichigo's side was one thing. They had watched the tall teen completely decimate Ganzack's ship with that strange power of his, they didn't want to deal with that, but even so they could tell by instinct that Ichigo was the much larger threat. Dropping their weapons the pirates scurried off for any ship that they could find. Roars of victory erupted from the now free town's people, some already running home to their families while others cheered for Ichigo and Chad. The two simply left the celebrations and headed for the beach. They had done what they had set out to do; there was no longer any need to stay here. Once they reached the beach Ichigo glanced out over the ocean, a smile on his face. He felt good about what they had done. It wasn't everyday you saved a town from the subjugation of pirates.

"Wait!" Ichigo glanced over his shoulder; even Chad looked up from where he was readying himself to push the boat back off of the beach. Medaka was running full sprint towards them, Ichigo could also see Skid and another man they had seen during the rebellion of the prisoners, presumably Medaka's father. She rushed up to the two, but the time she reached them she was out of breath. "Ju-Just wait." He panted, hands on her knees as she bent over. Ichigo glanced over at Chad the large teen already onboard, disappearing into the Cabin.

"Well we got your Father back." Ichigo smiled down at her. "Looks like things will start to look up around her for your town."

"It's all thanks to you guys." Medaka beamed up at him. "Thank you!" She smiled up at him, Ichigo placing a hand atop her head.

"No worries." Ichigo told her. "Oh, almost forgot." He crouched down in front of her, reaching into his jacket and pulling out the map that he had gotten from the Mayor back on Silk's island. "Can you give us any indication where we might be here on this map?" Ichigo questioned, he figured it'd be a long shot but they could at least try.

"Yeah, we're here." Medaka nodded, pointing to an island on the map. Ichigo's gaze instantly took in the location of the map making note of the nearest island with inhabitants on it. Luckily it wasn't too far away from what he could gather, as long as they headed east they'd reach the island hopefully before the end of the day. "Thanks." He grinned at her before a loud thud sounded beside them causing Medaka to jump slightly. Ichigo simply smiled knowing full well what was in the sack Chad had tossed down to them. "We rescued your Old Man, so we can't give you everything on our boat." Ichigo told her as he opened the sack showing the gold inside to Medaka who was completely stunned. "But, this should help you and your town."

"We can't accept this!" Medaka declared but Ichigo was already turning and walking away, jumping up onto the boat that was now in the water thanks to Chad. Ichigo simply gave her a wave with his hand while Chad gave her a thumbs up.

"Stay out of trouble Medaka."

"I will!" Medaka nodded. "Thank you again." She bowed to the two as they drifted further off from the island, Medaka not stopping her waving until they were out of sight. Chad and Ichigo soon found themselves relaxing on the ship once more, heading East hoping to find the next island in the East Blue so that they could get more supplies and figure out their next step. Leaning his head back Ichigo looked up to the blue sky with a smile, simply watching the clouds pass by.

"Only if I had my guitar." Chad mused causing Ichigo to chuckle; it would have certainly killed the boredom. A comfortable silence drifted between them once more as they sailed East. Chad's head perked up slightly feeling an unusual pressure around them, even Ichigo was aware of the difference in pressure as it closed in on them. Both of the teen's shot their gazes to the sky, eyes widening at what they were seeing. Out of all the weird things that they had seen today, from a dinosaur, to a giant cannon... what shocked them the most, was Tatsuki falling out of the sky.

"HELP ME!" Tatsuki's scream echoed out before she hit the water, moments later Ichigo had dived over the side, he couldn't very well let his childhood friend drown. He had way to many questions to ask her before that happened.


	3. Chapter 3

A few days of training had not prepared her for this, hell a lifetime of training wouldn't have prepared her for this. The days leading up to her sudden free fall from the sky had been excruciatingly difficult, she had been training in martial arts since childhood but training to unlock her spiritual powers was beyond anything she had done in her life prior. Kisuke was a true sadist when it came to training, she actually wished for the one that had trained Chad and Orihime, believing that this Yoruichi might be someone better to learn from than the laughing maniac that was Kisuke Urahara.

Multiple times he had tried to kill her, if she hadn't had her prior training in martial arts, she would have died. But even though they had been life or death experiences for her, the fact she knew that Kisuke was holding back made her all that more determined to unlock her power. She was proud of her title as Japan's strongest woman, but in the face of Kisuke or anyone else from the Soul Society she was nothing but a flailing child, something she wanted to work past. During her time training underneath Kisuke, her weakness was more than evident.

Thinking back on it, Tatsuki would have slapped herself a week ago. After unlocking her spiritual power and realising just how easy it was to do, it should have been easier. It wasn't until Kisuke had told her, the first time unlocking the power is the most difficult, that her powers much like Chad's and Orihime's appeared to defend herself. She had asked the obvious question, why hadn't it activated in the times prior like when she was attacked by Yammy, but Kisuke honestly didn't have an answer. By all means her powers should have activated to save herself, but sometimes powers never awoke in people, perhaps it was because her mind had been clouded or her power had not yet reached the point of manifestation. There were an unlimited amount of possibilities so Tatsuki let it go.

The days following that first after she had awakened her latent abilities, Kisuke didn't let up. She had to wonder if Ichigo had gone through the same rigours training, knowing that Kisuke was the first one to train Ichigo before he went to rescue Rukia. It probably wasn't the same, but Kisuke didn't seem the type to hold back when training someone. Something which the martial artist was now glad for. She had already jumped leaps and bounds in her strength, far stronger than when she was just the average human with spiritual awareness. Still she had a lot more to learn with her abilities, Kisuke had made it so that she knew how to activate her powers but hadn't delved much deeper other than to make her powers instinctual.

"_You'll figure it out, experiment a little."_ Was the direct quote he had told her before shoving her off into a rift to which she was now falling to her death towards the ocean below. The same rift that Ichigo and Chad had gone through, Kisuke had moved its location from whatever the hell a Dangai was, Tatsuki wasn't completely sure on the finer details but it was where the Rift was prior to being moved so that Kisuke had complete access to it and had informed the Soul Society that the rift was no longer present so that Ichigo and Chad's, and now her mission wouldn't be discovered. Tatsuki was still uncertain of the secrecy, but it's not like she had the chance to tell anyone anyway, she had barely been out of Kisuke's sight apart from bathroom breaks. He had been training her practically twenty four seven since she first arrived with very little sleep in between.

Now she was falling, the smell of the ocean was ever present as the clouds cleared away; the ocean was below and quickly approaching. She had given up on screaming a while ago, it simply was a waste of breath to continue with it. Kisuke had dropped her from damn near impossible heights to survive, there was no way Kisuke hadn't planned it that way.

"_Meaning that there has to be a way for me to survive this!"_ Tatsuki declared swinging her legs out so that she was laying flat in the air, there had to be something that she could do. She had been taught to flood her body with reiatsu to make her body stronger, was that what she was suppose to do? Slowly she increased the level of reiatsu from her fists down her arms and through her torso, down her body to her legs and feet. She felt the added weight of the power flowing through her, despite not actually gaining any. Increasing the levels of reiatsu, not wanting any chances of getting hurt by the impact. She felt stronger than she ever had as she fell; even in training she had never fully encased her body with reiatsu like this.

As she grew closer to the ocean, her eyes darted to a boat on the water's surface, the only thing in miles that she could see. What gained her attention was the two aboard, well one stuck out above the other. She'd never forget that orange hair. Both Ichigo and Chad were looking up at her in complete confusion and shock. At least Kisuke had put her close; that was something. Still, she'd punch his smug face when she saw him next for the sudden freefall.

"_Idiots!" _Tatsuki mentally growled at the two for standing there like gobsmacked morons. "HELP ME!" She called out to them before she crashed into the surface of the ocean. Despite having her body covered with reiatsu, it was still a shock to impact the water with the speed and velocity she had.

Slightly disoriented as she sunk beneath the surface, the blue around her didn't help as her eyes were slightly foggy. She caught sight of orange hair and turned her head to look at Ichigo who was swimming towards her. Funny, she had imagined she'd come into the rift and find Ichigo and Chad in need of rescuing and she'd get to show off her new power to them, instead she was the one sinking beneath the ocean's surface in the need of rescuing. Unconsciousness began to claim her as Ichigo grabbed her.

"Tatsuki! Damn it! Tatsuki wake up!" Ichigo's voice echoed around her. He seemed frantic which actually made Tatsuki a little happy that he was so worried about her. She could feel the compressions on her chest which instantly turned that happiness to irritation, he better not be coping a feel! She calmed down, figuring Ichigo wouldn't do that, he wasn't one to take advantage of someone like that. As more consciousness came back to her, her eyes opened slightly only to see Ichigo leaning down over her face, ready to give her mouth to mouth. Yeah, that wasn't happening.

"Gah! Get away from me!" Tatsuki shouted slamming a hand into Ichigo's face in an upward palm strike sending Ichigo reeling back. Tatsuki instantly sat up glaring at Ichigo as Chad sat off to the side happy that Tatsuki wasn't dead; Ichigo was upside down at an awkward angle, eyebrow twitching. This is what he gets for trying to help. "Damn pervert!"

"I was trying to save your damn life!" Ichigo roared, turning to face her.

"As you can see, I didn't need your mouth on mine for that to come about!" Tatsuki shouted back at him. The two glared at one another heatedly before the unexpected one of the trio cleared his throat bringing their attention to the large teen that was Chad.

"How are you here Tatsuki?" Chad questioned which only got a nod from Ichigo, also wanting to know the same answer. Tatsuki shifted slightly as she crossed her legs, looking between Chad and Ichigo.

"I figured out the whole double you thing." Tatsuki huffed. Referring to the Gigai's that Kisuke had used to fool everyone. "The ones that replaced you were complete and utter phonies, how could I not figure it out?" Ichigo face palmed, he believed that when Kisuke said he had it under control, he believed it. That would not be happening again.

"How did you figure it out?" Chad questioned.

"Wasn't that hard." Tatsuki shrugged. "You more so." She added, deciding to not let the big guy know she hadn't figured out he was gone, not wanting to hurt the guy's feelings. "But when I punched Ichigo in his stupid face, the moron balled like a baby and ran off."

"You're kidding!?" Ichigo shouted.

"In front of the whole grade of the first year students." Tatsuki smirked. "Try and explain that when you get back to school, your image, yeah totally ruined." Tatsuki laughed as Ichigo was clearly frustrated. Chad glanced at Tatsuki seeing the smirk simply shook his head as he sat not far from Tatsuki. Ichigo was already trying to figure out what kind of damage would have been done, and how much he would have to repair when he got back. Tatsuki simply shook her head before looking up to Chad, it was clear he was feeling her newly released reiatsu. "Is it that weird?" Tatsuki questioned under Chad's gaze.

"No." Chad shook his head. "I was just curious." Tatsuki tilted her head, wondering what he was curious about it was clear that he wasn't talking about the reiatsu from her they had both felt it on her way down, they had no reason to look up before she had called out to them otherwise. So what was he so curious of? "You're outfit."

"Eh?" Tatsuki blinked before her face went beat red before attempting to cover herself. Gifted from Kisuke once she had received her powers, despite her embarrassment at wearing such an outfit, she was given a sleeveless and backless Onmitsukidō uniform with a beige neck warmer as well as long beige wrist and leg warmers, each secured to each limb by a band. She was unsure why Kisuke had given her such, being told that it was worn by the 2nd Division members of the Soul Society. Kisuke simply waved it off and told her it fit a martial artist such as herself. While Tatsuki was unsure, she had decided to agree to wear the outfit, only putting it on after her training with Kisuke not wanting to wear such around him.

"Don't worry about that!" Tatsuki shouted at him with a glare. "How about, 'hey Tatsuki what's with your power level, it's over 9000' or something like that!" She continued to shout as Chad simply chuckled lightly to himself, here he was with two friends in another world, one was worried about his status back home and the other more concerned with what they thought of her newly gained power. It was odd; Chad didn't feel as though Tatsuki would be a burden to them. Once he himself had felt like a burden to Ichigo, it was even proven to him that Ichigo believed him to be one before they had gone to save Orihime. He had basically said so himself that Chad and Ishida were not strong enough.

At the time Chad was still nowhere near Ichigo's level of strength. He understood more than anyone Tatsuki's frustration of being left out of the fight back then but he had the chance to get stronger. But here she was now, brimming with more power than he or Orihime had when they first began to unlock their powers. Kisuke had really put her through the ringer before he had sent her here, that was clear. But that didn't mean she was in close proximity to either Chad or Ichigo in strength as they were now, she was just a beginner to all of this while he and Ichigo had the experience. Chad could already tell why Kisuke had sent her to them like she was. Tatsuki needed the experience of using her powers in a real fight to ever advance further. There was a limit to how much one could advance in just training.

"Not even going to ask how I got them?" Tatsuki questioned eyeing the two after having calmed down slightly.

"Kisuke would have had his hand in it." Ichigo stated his back to them as he looked up. "What do you know about what's going on, Tatsuki?" Ichigo questioned, a frown coming to Tatsuki's face.

"I know you've regained your powers to an extent, something that was hidden from everyone apart from Chad on Kisuke's request." Tatsuki began. "He's holding it a secret from the Soul Society too." Ichigo nodded. "He sent you both here to investigate this world or whatever, not sure as to why though." She added, looking out over the ocean seeing nothing but the endless blue horizon. "After I confronted him on your whereabouts, he said he'd train me and send me over to help out, with whatever." Ichigo let out a sigh, hanging his head running a hand through his hair.

"Figures as much." Ichigo stated, turning to look over his shoulder at her a small smile coming to his face. "Welcome aboard Tatsuki." Tatsuki smirked in return before nodding, she was glad he wasn't going to tell her to go home, or something along the lines similar to the last time she had confronted him about Orihime's whereabouts. She didn't think that she could forgive him if he did that again.

"_The idiot's matured somewhat."_ Tatsuki thought to herself with a smile.

"**Sorry to break up the reunion."** Kisuke's voice originated from Ichigo's pocket causing Tatsuki to jump slightly, not having expected the sudden voice. Ichigo scowled as he rose up to his feet, reaching into his back pocket pulling out his substitute badge. "**Just making sure you got your new arrival safe and sound."** Tatsuki marched over to Ichigo, snatching the badge from his grip.

"Like hell safe and sound! You dropped me from ten thousand feet in the damn sky!" Tatsuki roared, only getting a slight chuckle in return from Kisuke on the other end, which was before Ichigo snatched it back off of her with a slight glare.

"**Ah, six thousand feet to be exact." **Tatsuki glared at the badge while Ichigo rolled his eyes.

"Would have been nice to know we had someone coming." Ichigo sighed. "But I guess I shouldn't be surprised."

"**Ah, you're learning my young student."** Ichigo scowled at the old nickname, he could recall Kisuke calling him his young student a lot in the past. "**She was quick to discover my cover-up, I was impressed."** Kisuke explained as he glanced over at Tatsuki who grinned giving him the victory sign, Ichigo couldn't be sure whether it was because she had discovered it or because she had ruined his image at school. Something he would definitely need to fix once he got back.

"You replaced us with fakes; of course they were going to get found out." Ichigo growled did Kisuke really believe that everyone else was stupid enough to believe that fakes could replace them? "Look, I don't care why she's here or how she found out. She's here, no point arguing about it. So far, you've not been in contact and we've just been travelling around via a boat some nice people gave us after some stuff happened." Tatsuki glanced at Chad, curious to know what had happened.

"Pirates." Was all Chad had to say and Tatsuki nodded.

"So what the hell are we supposed to do here?" Ichigo questioned.

"**Right now, I need the three of you to explore the world that you're in."** Kisuke began, his tone becoming more official. "**I'm already aware about that encounters that you've had."** Ichigo raised an eyebrow slightly before glancing down at his badge with a sigh. "**Very astute my precious student, your badge is giving me readings on you spiritual levels and when your powers are activated, Chad's coin does the same." **Chad fingered his coin slightly with a slight frown.

"Would you quit messing with our stuff?" Ichigo let out a groan getting a soft chuckle from Kisuke.

"**What I need is information Ichigo, details of the governing factions, anything that might oppose those factions, world news, history; anything along those lines would be beneficial."** Kisuke began. "**If at all possible a bestiary, types of fauna, inhabitants of the world."** Ichigo rubbed his brow slightly, what were they doing here, inventory? Glancing to Tatsuki and Chad they had already lost interest and Chad was showing Tatsuki around the boat, leading her into the cabin. "**There is a lot more to learn about this world Ichigo."**

"You know none of us are experienced with stuff like this, right?" Ichigo questioned before a frown came to his face, looking over his shoulder to make sure Tatsuki was out of earshot. "Chad and I had our suspicions since we first arrived here, but currently that rift is one way isn't it?" Ichigo questioned. There was silence for a time, the soft chatter beneath them between Chad and Tatsuki below deck reached Ichigo's ears, although he wasn't able to pick up what they were saying to one another.

"**Yes."** Kisuke confirmed. "**The rift is currently one way."** Ichigo glanced up to the sky. "**I didn't mean to hide that fact from you."** Ichigo shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly.

"You had your reasons, Kisuke." Ichigo stated he had known Kisuke long enough to figure out that everything he did he had a motive behind it. "It's why Yoruichi wanted to come with us, wasn't it?" He chuckled lightly, Yoruichi would for always worry over him.

"**Indeed." **Kisuke stated. "**She wasn't very happy to learn that I had another job for her before she can join you over there."** That rose Ichigo's eyebrow, Kisuke was planning to send Yoruichi over to them, he wasn't opposed to the idea but hadn't expected for her to join them on this venture. "**There is a lot I need to explain to you Ichigo, one of the big reasons why I've sent you over there. But I want to do that face to face."** That's something Ichigo respected about Kisuke, while he had his secrets and hidden agenda he tried not to keep important information from those he trusted and when it came to Ichigo, he wanted to be honest whenever he could. Ichigo nodded slightly.

"Thanks Kisuke." Ichigo told him. "Right now, we're heading to an island, that's something I can give you information wise. The world's mostly covered by water; well this part is from that map we got from the village we arrived in; hence the need for the boat." Ichigo stated, pulling the map from his jacket and unfolding it. "Also, pirates and dinosaurs, that's a thing we found out."

"**See, you're a natural at this."** Kisuke chuckled, returning to his usually goofy tone. "**I'm sending some items you might find useful they should be there shortly. I'll send more when needed and also Ichigo." **Ichigo cast a glance down to his badge. "**Do look after Tatsuki, she has grown but needs improvement."**

"We'll figure it out." Ichigo replied. "Just one more thing Kisuke."

"**Name it."** Kisuke replied.

"I know you sent Tatsuki along to help us out, probably covering your own ass." Ichigo began. "But try and keep the others away from this, I don't want them getting into trouble with the Soul Society."

"**I'll make sure your friends won't be dragged into this Ichigo, you have my word."** Ichigo nodded silently and it was evident that Kisuke had gone feeling the spiritual pressure leaving the badge from Kisuke's end. Placing the badge back in his pocket he folded his map placing it back into his jacket. Looking up to the sky he sweat dropped, Kisuke's supplies were already on the way. There was a large crate falling from the sky, however unlike Tatsuki they had a balloon attached to them as they fell to slow their descent. It didn't take long for the crate to touch down on the deck, Ichigo manoeuvring around the crate removing the balloon which simply floated back up into the sky before bursting into flames. It wasn't difficult to open since the crate just held a latch to keep it closed.

"What's that?" Tatsuki questioned exiting the cabin to see the large crate on deck.

"Kisuke sent us some supplies." Ichigo stated throwing the crate open. "Did Chad give you the grand tour?" Ichigo questioned with a smirk getting one in return.

"Oh yeah, all twenty feet of it." Ichigo shook his head as Tatsuki came to see what was inside the crate. Inside was an assortment of items, nothing inside was familiar to Tatsuki however to Ichigo he was familiar with several of the items inside while the rest was a complete mystery. He focused on what he did recognise. Wrapped in cloth covered with writing was Ururu's multi-barrelled shoulder cannon with plenty of ammunition in the crate for it. Alongside Ururu's weapon was Jinta's Muteki Tekkon, a large kanabō.

Moving on, Ichigo recognised some of Yoruichi's weapons such as razor wire hanging on hooks inside the crate, a smaller box full of Anken, the large bulky Anti-Hierro Armor. Clearing the armor away he observed what else was present. Instantly he recognized the Tentōken mantle folded neatly. Resting on top of the mantle was the familiar wand device he had used when he first spoke to Yoruichi in her human form; he had never learned the devices name. Beside the folded mantle was a silver case. Reaching in he opened it, inside were somewhat small, light-colored spheres attached to each other by a string that looked like it could be thrown. Atop of the case written in kanji was 'Destructive Spheres'.

"Does he think we're going up against an army or something?" Ichigo pondered aloud before shaking his head and reaching for two small books located in the bottom of the crate. Both were labelled, the blue was labelled Kido while the red book was labelled Hakuda. "_I guess we can learn Kido, it was never specified that Kido was solely for Shinigami."_ Ichigo mused as he glanced at the blue book before looking to the red one and offered it to Tatsuki.

"What's this?" She questioned, looking the book over after having taken it from Ichigo. "Hakuda?"

"It's a form of martial arts." Ichigo explained as he placed the Kido book into his jacket in with the map. "It'll build on the techniques you already have, also offer spiritual techniques to enforce your attacks." He explained getting a cocked eyebrow from Tatsuki.

"Wouldn't you need something like that too?" Tatsuki questioned, she was aware that she needed more training, her skills now weren't on part of what she had seen from several of the Shinigami or Arrancar in the past, but since regaining his powers wouldn't Ichigo need just as much? Ichigo simply shook his head in response.

"Mine and Chad's power is slightly different." Ichigo explained, Tatsuki feeling a rise in spiritual pressure in his arm before green luminescent light flickered over his arm before he threw a punch, a small shockwave emitted from the impact with the air rustling their hair somewhat. "Its basic trait is to control the soul of an object or my own soul, like my badge or strength the soul in my arm like I did just then. It's reinforcing my arm." He explained. "The Hakuda book will teach you how to amplify your blows through a different method, not that Chad and I won't glance at it from time to time."

"I think I get it." Tatsuki nodded. "I'll look into it." Tatsuki told him. "What's that other book you hid away?"

"Kido spells." Ichigo told her. "Rukia went on about them like they're some great thing or something, thought Chad and I could give them a try." He shrugged his shoulders before Tatsuki jumped up, wrapping an arm around his neck and landing back on her, feet holding him in a headlock.

"Oh yeah! What about me! What if I wanted to give it a try!?" Tatsuki growled as Ichigo struggled in her grip, he was actually surprised she was already activating her spiritual power instinctually, he had to give it to Kisuke, a few days in training and she had already picked up on a lot that had very well saved his own life in the beginning.

"Alright, alright!" Ichigo growled throwing her off, Tatuski landing on her feet with a grin. "We'll figure it out but for now..." Ichigo trailed off as Chad came around the side of the cabin gaining both Ichigo's and Tatsuki's attention. "What's up Chad."

"A small boat." Chad simply informed the two, Ichigo and Tatsuki glanced at one another unsure what to make of the sudden announcement. The sound of a high pitched whistle immediately brought the three to their senses, the three walked around the cabin to see the boat Chad had been speaking about, they were surprised to see a young woman waving her hands at them, one hand holding up a bucket. Tatsuki and Ichigo had to blink several times at what they were seeing, where the hell had it come from? A little ways away from their own boat, was another one in a much worse state then their own. They could see the chipped wood from what looked to be gun fire, the mast was barely in working order let alone the torn and tattered sail.

"I could really use your help!?" The voice was clearly panicked, yet showing relief. "I'm taking on water!"

"Right, Chad change our course to intercept." Ichigo stated getting a nod from Chad who went about changing their course, something the large teen had learnt during their time sailing was to be able to manoeuvre the small vessel they had receive from Silk"s mayor. As they got closer it was clear to tell, the extent of the damage to the boat was much, much worse than what he had first originally thought. The boat was already sinking, taking on water and as he approached they saw the figure aboard emptying buckets of water as they got closer.

Chad switched ropes as he pulled up the sail causing the boat to drift forwards coming to a complete stop up alongside the sinking vessel, the girl in the boat looked up and smiled before abandoning the bucket she had been using to empty the boat of water. Grabbing a large white sack that was obviously stuffed full of something considering its large size and weight the girl leapt from her own boat landing on their own. The girl sat on the deck placing her bag down as she turned and grinned at them.

"Cheers for the save, I owe ya one!" She continued to grin happily, the three taking in her appearance for the first time now having the chance to do so. Numerous cuts and bruises covered both her face and her body that they could see some more severe than the others and nothing had been treated properly from what he saw, she was completely exhausted from the looks of it as well. Most of the injuries were more than likely hidden beneath her clothes which consisted of a white long-sleeved shirt, black pants, and brown shoes. Her clothing was dirty and bloody just as her skin was; even her short purple hair had dried blood in it. From the looks of it she had escaped from her captors very recently. Such circumstances would even explain why her boat was in the state that it was in.

"Yeah, don't mention it." Ichigo told her, glancing at the boat slowly sinking into the water beside them, the sides going down leaving only the mast and sail out of the water.

"Want to explain why you're in the state you're in?" Tatsuki asked, however the girl ignored her question as she went about surveying the deck of boat with a curious glance. Ichigo glanced to Chad; the unvoiced words to keep an eye on her went to the large teen who went to set sail once more while Ichigo ducked inside the cabin. Chad lowered the sail's allowing them to catch the wind again, still heading East as they drifted along catching the wind. He had no idea when they would reach land, but he hoped it would be soon.

"You have any food or water? I've been stranded out here for a few days with the bare minimal, I ran out of water earlier this morning." She explained with a hopeful tone of getting something to eat.

"There is, but I wouldn't eat it." Tatsuki shuddered remembering the state of the food in the kitchen. "I bet Ichigo has gone to get you some water." The girl nodded her head in thanks as she rested up against the large sack she had with her. "What's your name?"

"I'm Carina." The teen gave her name with a smile.

"Just Carina?" Tatsuki questioned, unsure.

"Yep, just Carina." She nodded with a smile. "Some call me Hellcat, but that's just a name people call me." She shrugged with a heavy sigh. "And you three?" She asked as Ichigo exited the Cabin with a cup of water in hand.

"That's Ichigo Kurosaki, the big Guy is Yasutora Sado and I'm Tatsuki Arisawa." Tatsuki gave her their own names. "How come you were sinking? It didn't look like it was a storm or anything like that." Carina gave an awkward laugh before Ichigo crouched down before her, gaining her attention.

"When was the last time you replaced these bandages?" Ichigo questioned examining her poorly wrapped bandages, it was clear that she had done them herself.

"Uh, I haven't." Carina spoke; surprised he was concerned for her injuries. "I haven't had the time; I've been trying to keep myself afloat for the last couple of days." She explained.

"Would explain the bags under your eyes." Ichigo nodded. "Here, some water." Ichigo handed her a mug with fresh water within, something Carina was all too happy to take off his hands. "I'll have Tatsuki help you remove your bandages and treat what she can." Carina looked up from the mug in surprise. "It'd be better than me doing, don't you think?"

"Well, maybe." She winked at him, a small dust of red carrying over Ichigo's cheeks but he ignored it as he turned to Tatsuki.

"Can you remove her bandages, clean up her injuries and replace the bandages with clean ones; everything is inside on the table ready to be used. If they're left as they are, they'll get infected. If there is anything more serious, let me know and I'll have to do something about it." Tatsuki, surprised at Ichigo's conviction simply nodded. "Then we'll see what you can tell us about what happened." He said turning back to Carina, the purple haired teen nodded under the serious gaze, while he was all to happy to help her out it was clear that he didn't trust her. Not that she could blame him.

"Sure thing, just come with me." Tatsuki spoke as Ichigo offered a hand to Carina who took it, before she was pulled to her feet. Carina walked past Ichigo before glancing over her shoulder.

"Don't be going through my delicates now." She told them causing Ichigo to blush as she laughed and followed Tatsuki inside. Ichigo simply moved the sack she had with her to the side so it was out of the way, it was clear that there was more than just 'delicates' within but he wasn't about to pry. He had no right to go through her belongings. Chad stood on the deck with him along with the large crate that they had received from Kisuke. They would need to put it in the hold once Carina was out of the way; they didn't want to intrude on her while Tatsuki was fixing up her bandages.

"Why did Kisuke send all of this?" Chad questioned.

"Not really sure." Ichigo admitted. "It's not like either of us will use it." Chad nodded in agreement; he wasn't exactly one for using weapons considering his own body was a massive weapon and Ichigo had his own power to use. "We'll figure it out as we go along, after all Silk almost came with us. If we do end up somehow getting more people aboard, maybe they can use it." Chad hummed in agreement, if they were going to continue on, there was the possibility of their group of three growing larger. "Kisuke didn't say how long we're going to be here, but it's going to be a while. Plus, if we're going somewhere dangerous like the Grand Line we'll need a bigger crew than just us and with these they'll be able to defend themselves."

"Are we becoming pirates?" Chad questioned.

"I don't think so." Ichigo shook his head, not liking to be labelled under the same title as Galley and Ganzack. "But I don't think joining a group of authorities, like the Marines would be in our wheelhouse either, after all we've got our own job to do." He admitted. "We'll simply be us, no labels or anything like that. We'll see where that gets us." Chad simply nodded as they looked out the ocean sailing along. "Chad."

"Hmm."

"Don't tell Tatsuki that I had already performed CPR on her before she regained consciousness, alright." Ichigo sighed glancing at his long time friend. "She'll just hit me again." Chad simply smirked, but nodded regardless. "Thanks."

* * *

The four members aboard now sat down at the table, Chad having brought it from within the cabin to the outside. It would have been too cramped in the Cabin with the four of them inside so they had decided to move the table outside. Tatsuki had replaced Carina's bandages, it was surprising she didn't have more immediate injuries but they were glad for it. They didn't exactly have the capability of treating someone with severe injuries. Carina was looking around suspiciously, but it was Chad who answered her unasked question.

"Your belongings were placed below deck in the hold." Chad spoke.

"Ah, thank you." Carina stated.

"You were obviously attacked." Ichigo stated swinging back on his chair with his arms folded. "Were they pirates?" He questioned. Carina looked over the other three, she had no reason to hide the fact that she was attacked, they had after all saved her and they weren't flying a pirate flag. But what made her cautious was that, they just seemed to be here. They weren't pirates, they were clearly not Marines, and she hadn't seen anything to warrant them as thieves or even bounty hunters, so it just brought the question of who they were. However they hadn't treated her unkindly, treating her wounds and even giving them some water of what little they already had. They would have given her food if they had it.

"Yes, they were pirates." Carina nodded, getting a nod from Chad and Ichigo. Tatsuki however still wasn't completely sure on how this world worked, it was clear there were pirates, but why would they attack a small vessel like Carina's, not to mention the contents of Carina's sack was clearly not just delicates. Something just wasn't right here. "They were hunting me, but I managed to loose them however my boat took too much damage and soon I was stranded."

"Anything you can tell us about the pirates?" Ichigo questioned, Carina shifting slightly but she shook her head.

"That's fine." Chad told her.

"It is?" Tatsuki question surprised getting a raised eyebrow from Ichigo. "This is obviously suspicious right? They were hunting her, yet we're not going to ask why? It's clear because of whatever is in that sack."

"Probably all the gold in it that she stole from them." Ichigo stated causing Tatsuki to blink in surprise, why were they so calm about this, why did they think she stole it from them?!

"She's a thief." Chad simply stated seeing Tatsuki's confusion.

"Eh, no, you must be mistaken." Carina tried to wave it off before Ichigo's gaze locked with hers, making her lower her gaze and nod. "You're right." She sighed. "I'm a thief; the pirates I stole from were after me because I stole their treasure." She continued as she raised her gaze. "But I did it for a good reason!"

"Don't care." Ichigo waved it off.

"Yeah, you're still a crook either way!" Tatsuki added.

"Not what I meant." Ichigo stated making Tatsuki turn to him with slight confusion. "So she stole from a pirate, so what?" Ichigo shrugged. "We've got gold down below from a pirate that we were given as a reward for defeating a crew of pirates." Carina blinked as Ichigo explained that, these three had defeated an entire crew just on their own? No, by the way he was explaining it to Tatsuki it was just the two guys that had done so. She had never met strong people that weren't pirates, but to find two random guys that had taken down an entire crew on their own?

"M-May I ask which pirate crew you defeated?" Carina questioned, she had to make sure that these guys were actually a threat. If they took down some nobody then it didn't matter, but if they had taken down someone of considerable strength in the East Blue then there was a problem. She couldn't exactly steal all their treasure if they were strong, right? Not when they knew she was a thief. Ichigo simply nodded to her request before opening his jacket and pulling out a wanted poster. Carina swallowed nervously, they were bad enough to warrant a bounty. "_No, that doesn't mean they've defeated anyone of much importance." _She declared as she flipped the flier over and breathed a sigh of relief. Crescent Moon Galley. He was a fresh bounty, not that much was known about him but he wasn't much even in the East Blue, bottom of the barrel.

"There was also another guy earlier today before we found you Tatsuki." Ichigo added making Carina blink, they had taken down another pirate today? They didn't seem the slightest bit worn out.

"Ganzack." Chad agreed. This froze Carina slightly, she knew of Ganzack, he was a bounty of Nine Million that had taken over an island in this region of the East Blue and had hundreds of men under his control, enough to enslaved an entire island. Ganzack was no push over; there was even talk about him having some kind of super weapon whispered around Marine Bases. As she listened to Chad and more so Ichigo explained to Tatsuki what Ganzack had been up to, there was only more concern rising in Carina, there was no way she could steal from these three, she had barely made it away from the Treasure Pirates after what had happened to her and Nami.

"So what are we planning to do with the thief then?" Tatsuki questioned leaning back in her chair looking over the now quiet thief while Chad rose to his feet, going to check that they were still on course.

"We'll drop her off at the island we're heading too; she's probably got enough gold in her bag to buy another boat." Ichigo stated with a shrug figuring there was nothing else that they could do, sure he wasn't a fan of criminals but how was he to judge her? He didn't know her upbringing and all she had done was stolen from pirates. For all he knew she could be like this world's Robin Hood, sure he doubted it but he didn't know if she was or not.

"Land." Chad spoke up making a Ichigo perk his head up before raising from his seat, going to where Chad was standing at the bow of the ship, off in the distance was the unmistakable signs of an island.

"That's Dawn Island." Carina spoke up as she and Tatsuki approached. "I was trying to get there myself, but with the state my boat was in I was glad to run into you guys." She explained.

"Anything we should know about it?" Ichigo questioned, he had already been on two islands, the first had been set upon by pirates and the second one had been taken hostage by pirates.

"It's a rather peaceful island, that mountain range surrounds the Goa Kingdom." She continued, pointing off to the mountains in the distance. "Probably not the best idea to go there, while the Kingdom itself faces the ocean there nobles that don't like unknowns to come in." She explained. "Pirates are not welcome."

"We're not pirates." Ichigo stated. "But, they don't know that." He added. "Any small towns we can land on?"

"A few." Carina nodded as she pulled out her own map and held it out before Ichigo. "Here would be the closest to us, Foosha Village." She told him pointing to a small town on the map. to the right of Gosa Kingdom.

"Then I guess we're heading to Foosha Village." Ichigo told them. "Thanks." He nodded to Carina who nodded her head. Chad maneuvered the rudder to direct them into the direction of Foosha Village, heading away from the Mountain Range. Soon enough the small sleepy rural village with windmills came into view.

"_I feel like I'm forgetting something."_ Carina thought to herself as she watched the village get closer. "_Something important."_

"Ah… guys." Tatsuki began, looking over the port side of the boat. "There's something underneath us." She began. Ichigo frowned as he glanced at Chad who nodded in confirmation, looking over the side of the boat he noticed the large shadow beneath the water.

"Another dinosaur?" He questioned.

"Oh God!" Carina shouted. "It's the Lord of the Coast! A Sea King!" As if on cue, the massive Sea King shot out of the water, everyone holding onto the railing for dear life as the small boat almost capsized at the rush of flowing water as the Sea King revealed itself. The Sea King was massive, much larger than the dinosaur that Chad and Ichigo had seen earlier in the day, it resembled and oversized brown eel with red eyes and blue fins.

"What the hell is that thing!?" Tatsuki shouted, turning to Ichigo and Chad, the orange haired teen letting out a short whistle as he held a hand to his eyebrows and looked up at the size of the beast that was looking down at them. Carina was just as terrified as Tatsuki was knowing all to well the dangers of Sea Kings. Chad meanwhile simply looked at the gigantic beast.

"We need to get out of here!" Carina shouted over to the two, Ichigo and Chad looking over to the two terrified girls. Ichigo folded his hands behind his head as he looked at Tatsuki.

"Go on Tatsuki, show it who's boss." Ichigo told her.

"What!? Are you insane, there is no way I can fight that thing! It's a monster!" Tatsuki shouted back.

"So what, that whole 'your power level, is over 9000' was just a lie then?" He smirked as Tatsuki's face went red from anger and embarrassment. Ichigo simply chuckled lightly as he turned to Chad.

"You mind?" Chad shook his head knowing that if Ichigo were to attack the beast, he would have to do so with his sword and kill the creature whereas Chad could just displace it. Chad walked to the side of the boat, locking eyes with the large Sea King. The ferocious beast lunged forward, Carina and Tatsuki letting out screams of terror, however the impending death never came. The boat rocked roughly at the start, but when they looked up both were stunned to see that Chad had used both of his hands to stop the beast, it's large form trembling realising it's mistake.

Carina watched with wide eyes as both of his arms became covered in a strange liquid, his left arm in white and red while his right arm black and red. The liquid solidified quickly covering his arms in an armour like casing. Then with a roar, Chad pulled using all his strength forcing the Sea King out of the water making it whimper before Chad pivoted and tossed it over the boat, sending it flying several hundred meters before crashing down into the ocean.

"Hey Tatsuki." Ichigo spoke, looking over to the two girls, both stunned at the display of strength, Carina actually collapsed to her knees in disbelief at what she had just seen. There should be no way that someone's strength could get like that. Tatsuki dumbly turned to Ichigo who was grinning. "What's the scouter say about his power level."

"Shut up jerk!" Both Ichigo's and Chads laughter could be heard over the ocean, more so Ichigo's as Chad just chuckled lightly.

* * *

Foosha Village was a quiet rural village, even from the dock they could tell not that much happened here. Chad and Ichigo were busy tying the boat to the dock as Tatsuki, still angry stepped off the boat and onto the dock, despite only being on the boat for a few hours it was good to be back on stable footing. Carina wasn't that far behind her, still slightly pale at what she had seen Chad do to a Sea King. Never before had she witnessed anybody do something like that. It was boarding on the insane. But Ichigo and Chad didn't bat an eyelid to it and Ichigo had suggested that Tatsuki take on the Sea King herself, just who were these people?

"Who are you!?" A man's voice reached them making Ichigo and Chad look up as Carina and Tatsuki stood at the bottom of the stairs that led up to the village, a small elderly man wearing oval glasses, and had a mustache and a beard stood at the top of the stairs, He wore fairly simple clothes and a hat, he also had a walking cane. It was clear the man was frightened, obviously having seen the Sea King tossed into the air. But despite his fear, he had come to talk with them.

"If you're here to start trouble, we've got nothing for the likes of pirates like you! Begone, we've had enough trouble with your kind! Now get, go on scram!" He shouted.

"Mayor, please!" A new voice came as a woman came up behind the elderly man. "That's no way to greet travelers." The elderly mayor huffed, muttering under his breath before walking off, deciding to let the woman handle the situation. "I'm sorry for his behaviour, he doesn't like pirates very much."

"We're not pirates." Ichigo spoke as he and Chad along with Carina and Tatsuki walked up the stairs to greet the woman. She had brown eyes and dark green hair in a pony tail that goes up to just above her shoulders. She was dressed in an orange blouse with black sleeves and a long light blue skirt and orange sneakers with white soles.

"I'm sorry for the assumption, just anyone who's been able to deal with the Lord of the Coast has been a pirate." She smiled at them. "I'm Makino, I run a bar in town. Please, come I've just made lunch."

"Much appreciated." Ichigo took the offer without hesitance, now that they were on land and with the chance for food he and Chad wouldn't dare turn it away. Carina and Tatsuki followed after them, heading through town getting a few wary glances from the villagers but otherwise there was no problem. Makino led them to a small establishment that was labeled Partys Bar by the green sign overhead.

Makino was all to happy to serve them up some food, Tatsuki and Carina surprised by the way Ichigo and Chad kept eating like they had bottomless pits for stomachs, Tatsuki had never known the two to be such aggressive eaters before but they had a whole lot of inedible food aboard their ship so they were probably really hungry.

"You two remind me of someone." Makino smiled at them. "He ate just like that."

"A friend?" Tatsuki asked, getting a nod from Makino.

"Yes, he left on his journey just a few days ago." She told them. "He went out to sea to become a pirate." She smiled fondly. "He wants to be King of the Pirates one day."

"He's going after the One Piece then?" Carina asked getting a nod from Makino with a smile. "Then he'll be heading for the Grand Line soon enough."

"Huh, maybe we'll see him there, what's his name?" Ichigo asked turning to Makino surprising Carina that, that was where they were heading too. Not that it should surprise her considering that they were monsters and the Grand Line was full of people just like them, or so the rumours say.

"Luffy, you'll know him by his hyperactive attitude and his straw hat." Makino giggled "He won't go anywhere without it. If you do see him, tell him I said hello."

"Will do." Ichigo nodded, he didn't expect to see the straw hat guy but if they did there was no hassle passing on the message.

Ichigo sat in Partys Bar, lunch long since over looking over his map of the East Blue, now that he knew where they were they could at least plot another course. Tatsuki and Chad had left the bar to get more supplies with a helpful list from Makino on what they would need for a venture and food that wouldn't spoil. Carina sat with Ichigo, helping him go over the map, giving him distances and such and how long it would take to reach nearby islands.

"How do you get to the Grand Line?" Ichigo questioned, turning to Carina.

"Not as easy as you might think." Carina admitted. "There are two primary ways of reaching the Grand Line, through the Calm Belt or over Reverse Mountain, here." She pointed to the red line where it showed a waterway leading through it. "The Calm Belt's are filled with Sea King's like the Lord of the Coast and the worst thing about it, is that there are no currents and no wind, as soon as you lose momentum in there you're stuck."

"You sure know alot about it." Ichigo remarked getting a smirk from Carina.

"Of course, I had planned to go to Loguetown, find myself a ship and go there myself." She told him, Ichigo raising an eyebrow in question. "I'm after the Gran Tesoro." She grinned.

"And that is?" He questioned making her raise an eyebrow at him, sure not many people knew what it was but they had to have at least some idea, right?

"Let's just say, it's a thief's dream." She grinned once more, Ichigo shook his head as he turned back to his map. "So once I find it out there in the Grand Line, I'll take it over and have the bragging rights."

"Just the bragging rights?" Ichigo questioned.

"That, and what could very well be the second largest treasure in the world, apart from the One Piece." She explained with a grin. Ichigo shook his head before an idea came to him, it was clear Carina knew more about this world and he had already been told that the Grand Line was dangerous place, and not just because of the pirates, the climate was suppose to be deadly itself. But here was a person, intent on going to the Grand Line, had knowledge of it and only needed a ship and crew.

Carina blinked noticing the intense stare that Ichigo was giving her making her slightly uncomfortable under such a gaze. Shifting uncomfortably on the spot she rose her eyes to meet his, his expression unreadable as they stared at one another, both ignorant to the prying eyes of the bartender watching intently to see what would happen next. It had been a while since such a scene had appeared before Makino and she wanted to enjoy it to the fullest.

"You should join up with us." Ichigo flatly spoke the truth causing Makino to blink along side Carina, both not having expected such a thing to suddenly coming from him, Makino wanted him to read the room while Carina was still coming to terms that he had just told her to join their crew.

"Join your crew?" Carina questioned, getting a nod from Ichigo. "Uh, why?"

"No reason as to why not." Ichigo shrugged leaning back in his chair. "You're looking to head to the Grand Line anyway, we're eventually heading there. You have the necessary navigation skills and know about the Grand Line and we have a boat so I don't see how either of us lose here."

"Not much of a boat." Carina scoffed causing Ichigo's brow to twitch. "If you're heading to the Grand Line, you'll need something better than that shabby boat." Ichigo scratched at his cheek slightly. "Not to mention, I'm a thief remember."

"I know." Ichigo told her before a slight smirk came to his face making her swallow nervously. "You also know what we're capable of so I doubt you'd want to double cross us."

"If I say no?" Carina asked only getting a shrug from Ichigo.

"That's fine, we'll just find someone else." He told her. "As you've already seen." He gestured to the maps laid out before him. "I'm not great at Navigation, Chad and Tatsuki aren't either. So, we could really use your help, but if we have to search elsewhere that's fine too." Carina rose her thumb to her mouth, chewing on her nail slightly. She couldn't fault Ichigo's logic, she had what they needed and if they got a better ship they had what she needed. Not to mention, they were strong. She would need that kind of strength to help her reach Gran Tesoro.

"I'll join under one condition." Carina told him causing Ichigo's eyebrow to raise slightly in question. "You help me reach Gran Tesoro."

"Shouldn't be a problem." Ichigo smirked offering his hand to Carina. "We have a deal?"

"We have a deal." Carina nodded taking his hand, the two shaking on it missing the pout that crossed the bartenders face, Makino was expecting a young love to blossom, not a deal of some kind. "The first thing we're doing." Carina began. "Is getting a better boat."

"Yeah, ours will be cramped with just the four of us." Ichigo agreed, wondering how they'd go about getting a proper ship.

"Also we'll need a proper crew." Carina continued making Ichigo wince as she began to lecture him on the positions that needed to be filled even before considering to head to the Grand Line, Ichigo was regretting this already.

* * *

**Karakura Town**

The whisk of blue flames surrounded the wolf, the fact that nobody had caught onto its presence was a miracle in of itself. Karakura Town had been under a high level of surveillance since being returned to the world of the living, precautions had to be made to make sure that the residents weren't affected by the condensed reishi of the Soul Society. She had to wonder why they hadn't caught onto her presence here. Was her power really too minuscule to even warrant attention from Soul Society any longer.

Since her battle alongside her partner, she had been stuck here. When the Fake Karakura was replaced with the real one she had simply remained, not having been transferred to the Soul Society after the Shinigami had won and no way for her to survive in Hueco Mundo on her own. She could deal with the odd hollow or two that took an interest in her here, but if she was swarmed in Hueco Mundo she wouldn't stand a chance. She wasn't even sure what had happened to Las Noches but she figured that the Espada were done for.

She hadn't even been able to watch the last fight having been stuck here in the world of living in the Fake Karakura. She heard rumours from the passing patrols about what happened. Someone by the name of Ichigo Kurosaki had taken down Aizen. He had piqued her curiosity, not wanting to feel sorry for herself after what had happened. She had, had enough solitude since her time as a hollow, becoming an Arrancar had changed that, given her comrades but now all that was gone. She didn't want to go back to that loneliness.

It was just coming onto a month since the end of the war, and she had found him. Ichigo Kurosaki. She didn't know what to think at first, the rumours she heard said that he lost his powers and she hadn't seen him fight, but each night he went to a strange shop with a Shinigami present. Her curiosity had gotten the better of her and she had snuck into the small shop one time to find an underground training area where Ichigo and two Shinigami were training with another teenager. He still had powers.

But the last few nights, after finally getting up the courage to at least attempt to talk to him not sure what his reaction would be upon seeing a spirit wolf go up to him… she could always say that she was his spirit guide, humans liked stuff like that right? He hadn't been around, there was a fake parading around to keep it concealed that the real one was missing. The only source she had on his whereabouts were in that small shop. He was her only chance to get away from the isolation, he had befriended an Arrancar once, he could do it again right?

The small blue spiritual wolf crept through the small store, it never locked when she snuck in. She was already heading to the entrance to the training ground, believing that would be the best place to start looking as it was always was where Ichigo was when he came here. Approaching the open hatch, she frowned. It was never open, she always had to open it herself.

"Why hello there." The wolf froze mid step as she turned her gaze to the crouching Shinigami currently grinning at her from behind his green and white fan. "I think it's about time we introduce ourselves hmm? I'm Kisuke Urahara and you are?" Swallowing nervously, eyes looking for any means of escape, but he hadn't killed her yet, that had to be a good sign.

"L-Lilynette Gingerbuck." She spoke softly backing away slightly. "I'll go now, I'm sorry." She was about to rush off before Kisuke's hand wrapped around the scruff of her neck and picked her up, turning her to face him, a small gentle smile on his face.

"No need to be scared." He assured her placing her back onto the ground. "You're wondering where Ichigo went hmm?" He asked, surprise being evident on the wolf's face. "I've been aware of you since you first began to watch him regain his powers."

"You have?" Kisuke nodded his head. "You know what I am?"

"Yes." Kisuke confirmed. "An Arrancar, yet something about you is off." Lilynette lowered her head slightly, he was probably referring to the connection between her and Starrk that was no longer present. "Now, about Ichigo." He spoke, raising to his feet. "He's currently on a job for me in another dimension." Lilynette stared slack jawed at him. "Don't worry he's fine, he has two friends with him." Kisuke assured her.

"Another dimension." Lilynette breathed. "So much for that idea." She muttered under her breath, that was before Kisuke poked her in the forehead a small spark at the tip of his finger as she was sent flying backwards and down the shaft that led to the underground training ground. She let out a groan as she hit the ground down below lowering a hand to rub her butt before her eyes widened. She was back in her usual Arrancar state, how had he done that!?

"Come along, much to do and I need an assistant!" Kisuke declared landing beside her and walking off whistling a merry tune. Lilynette blinked, unsure what to do and resigned to following him. He led her through the training ground and stopped before a massive structure, it was clearly incomplete but it had its basic shape, it was some kind of vessel.

"What's that!?" Lilynette questioned, unable to hide her excitement.

"It's the ship that I'm going to have you deliver to Ichigo." Kisuke grinned making Lilynette look up at him before he placed a hand atop of her helmet mask fragment. "Ichigo won't have a problem with you being there, he'll take care of you." Lilynette looked down at her feet shuffling them awkwardly. "Now, let's get to work this thing won't build itself." He declared walking forward, Lilynette rushing after him.


	4. Chapter 4

Chad was looking through the stalls, Makino was kind enough to give them a list of provisions that they would undoubtedly need upon setting out, it was good to have confirmation on some of this stuff Ichigo and Chad had come very unprepared when setting off on this adventure. Both he and Tatsuki had headed to the ship first, retrieving some of the gold that he and Ichigo had received from Galley that the people of Silk's town had given to them, once that had been done they had gone to a small building that Makino said could exchange the gold into Beri, the currency of this world. While the small currency exchange couldn't very well deal with all of the treasure that they had, it was enough to give them enough money to buy supplies with a bit extra which Chad split between him and Tatsuki to get what they wanted.

Tatsuki hadn't been keen on it, knowing she hadn't earned a single Beri of it; but Chad just gave it to her without hesitation. Unfortunately, Chad hadn't been able to find what he was looking for, a music store, upon asking a few pedlars and passing villagers he had learned that there was no music store in Foosha Village and the closest one would be in the Goa Kingdom and Chad doubted they'd go there for just a guitar and he didn't want to ask because he knew that the trip to Goa would take time and with Ichigo, might bring more trouble than it's worth not that he blamed a Ichigo the the situations they got in, but trouble seemed to follow Ichigo wherever he went.

"Chad do we need maps or a compass, anything like that?" Tatsuki questioned from the small store she was looking at, the large teen looking over to her to see it littered with all manners of usable items for navigation. They had gotten by on what they knew so far, with very little in the way of navigation supplies. Silk had given Ichigo a map but they barely knew how to read it and until they had met Medaka, they hadn't even known where they were. They had just been lucky that in this dimension the Sun still rose in the East and set in the West, if it didn't they'd probably still be in the middle of the ocean by now.

"A compass, maybe two just encase." Chad spoke as he approached, they'd need more than to just rely on the Sun's position now and with a compass at least they could tell what general direction they would be heading in. "Ichigo already has a map of the East Blue." Chad told Tatsuki as she handed the Beri over for the two compasses, passing one to Chad who reached up, undoing the gold chain around his neck that held his coin before attaching the compass to it. The gold coin he had on the chain already seemingly fitting over the glass face of it perfectly.

The two continued on with their browsing, having already taken the supplies that they had gotten back to the boat and having gotten rid of everything that was no longer usable. As they walked Tatsuki was frowning, recalling the event with the Sea King, how Ichigo had told her to get rid of it. At the time she had been angry because of the jokes he had made afterwards but now that she had time to think about it, did Ichigo really think that she could have dealt with it? She had seen what Chad did to the Sea King, there was no way that she could have done anything like that… but she could have done something, right? Turning to Chad, the large teen quiet as ever as the two walked through the few stalls that lined the street.

"Chad." Tatsuki began, chewing on her bottom lip. "Before, back with the Sea King, do you think I could have done something about it with my power?" Chad glanced down at her; an unreadable look on his face, his messy hair that covered his eyes wasn't helping her read him at all.

"Ichigo wouldn't have put you into a position that would have put you in danger." Chad told her, surprising the martial artist. Surprising her even more, Chad continued. "Ichigo knows you need experience, even if you couldn't have fought the Sea King off, it would have allowed you to see your current limit and be able to push past it." Tatsuki stopped walking, Chad doing the same as Tatsuki looked down at her feet. Ichigo had given her the opportunity and she had missed it, she was still hung up on the fact that she was only human and by that limited by human limitations; she only had these powers for a short time, not having to deal with the life and death situations that Chad and Orihime had to deal with by fighting with Hollows.

She had come here cocky and expectant to be able to do what they do, face monsters like the Sea King… no some of the things that they fought were far worse than Sea Kings, she remembered Aizen all too well. "I wouldn't get hung up on it." Chad began to walk once more, only making it a couple of feet.

"Chad, fight me." The large teen stopped in surprise as he turned to look over his shoulder at her, eyes wide under his hair. "I want to know what my limits are, right now." She declared to him. "You're stronger than me right? Then there's no way that I won't reach my limit fighting you." She ground her teeth as she clenched her hands into fists. "I don't want to be tossed aside like last time! I've worked too hard to get where I am, I know I'm not at the stage where I'm capable of fighting like you guys, but I need to prove that I can!" She finished looking up at him, noticing a smile on his face before he nodded.

"Alright." Walking back towards her, she followed in step before they walked down the street, Tatsuki reaching up to her long hair and pulling it into a ponytail. Chad had always been physically strong, more so than the average human even before he had gained powers. She would have to throw everything she had at him. Chad led her out of town and past a few farms, they being a far distance away from Foosha Village now, Tatsuki knew why she had witnessed some fights between her friends and their enemies, they were always destructive. "Here." Tatsuki smiled, after that small speech he gave her, he was back to one word answers.

Tatsuki nodded her head as she slipped into a familiar martial arts style. Already feeling the Reiatsu flow through her body, however Chad was already before her, arm cocked back, it was like he had vanished, she had experienced this multiple times with Kisuke but to see Chad use it surprised her. She was forced to block with her arms in an X fashion as she was sent skidding back, luckily her arms were imbued with Reiatsu already taking most of the damage but it still hurt like hell and her arms felt numb. The distance she had skidded back was considerable, her feet having dragged up the grass leaving two dirt trails in her wake. Chad wasn't kidding around, but a smirk found a way to her lips.

_"Good, I don't want him pulling punches."_ She smirked as she rushed forward, Chad had already thrown a punch to greet her but his hulking size was considerably slow, and despite his fast moving technique his attacks were slower than average. Ducking under his fist she cocked her own fist back at her side and punched as hard as she could, imbuing Reiatsu into her fist to make it as powerful as she could and she knew it was stronger than what humans could manage. But even then, her body shuddered in pain; it was like she had just punched solid steel.

Jumping back her fist was even bleeding but she didn't stop, charging forward once more, dodging Chad's sluggish blows and dealing what blows she could, both kicks and punches knowing grapples wouldn't work on Chad in the slightest considering his strength and size. However nothing was working, his body was too tough to actually land a decent blow on him despite her blows having considerable strength behind them.

Chad raised both of his hands up surprising her as he was completely open to attacks, but that's where she knew what was going to happen next. Chad's arms came crashing down with a roar from the large teen sending a shock wave through the ground and blowing her off her feet. Groaning she looked up, Chad was standing where he was, not a single blow of hers had moved him in the slightest. Grinning as she got to her feet, after the martial arts tournament people called her the strongest woman in Japan. As if, Orihime was probably stronger than her now. Looking down at her hands, both bruised and bloody from the blows she had landed on him, even her legs were feeling numb.

_"Right, I've only done this a few times since training with Kisuke and they had been life or death moments, but just like he said. I've got to use it when I want, not when I need."_ Feeling the flow of Reiatsu in her body she readied herself once more, during their little bout if she stayed still for too long to concentrate on her Reiatsu Chad would move into attack, without openly revealing he was doing so he was telling her to use the flow naturally not let herself concentrate to hard on it's use, she had to use the power instinctively, something she needed to work on in battle. Charging forward again, a grin on her face as Chad readied himself, however this time he charged back at her.

"Now or never!" Tatsuki shouted pressing her feet into the ground, cocking her fist back flowing with power. "Deadly Magnum!" Heat blazed around her hand, Chad's eyes widening at the flames that burst forth. Raising his right arm up, activating his Brazo Derecha de Gigante in its defensive form, the shield blocking the punch as flames burst around them in an explosion. Tatsuki stumbled back, the overuse of her spirit energy making her slightly drowsy. She witnessed as the smoke cleared, the large black and red shield, it didn't have a scratch on it. "Damn…" She muttered before falling on her ass, breathing heavily as Chad rose to his feet. His shield now at his side before it began to disappear.

"You might not have been able to deal with the Sea King." Chad began as he crouched down before her, offering his hand. "But I can assure you, we won't toss you aside. We'll help you get stronger." Tatsuki let a small grin come to her face as she nodded happily, taking the offered hand before being pulled to her feet.

"What was that all about?" Both Tatsuki and Chad looked over to where Ichigo stood leaning on a fence railing, with Carina standing nearby, the purple haired thief slightly stunned. It was clear that the two had witnessed the end of the fight. Chad and Tatsuki walked over to them, Ichigo noticing the injuries that Tatsuki had sustained while Chad had none.

"Training." Chad simply told him, getting a nod from Ichigo.

"I thought you would have been long gone by now." Tatsuki spoke, turning to Carina.

"She's actually joining us." Ichigo told her, surprising both Chad and Tatsuki not having been expected the sudden new crew member. "We discussed it and she's agreed to become our Navigator." Tatsuki was slightly surprised by that, but then again what should she have expected? None of them knew how to navigate, Carina was clearly more knowledge about it and without a doubt without her, they'd be lost the moment they set out away from Foosha Village and they would end up just like Chad and Ichigo were before she had arrived.

"Welcome aboard." Chad nodded to her, getting a smile from the thief in return. Chad then turned to Ichigo who looked up at him. "We'll need another hammock." He told the former Shinigami who nodded, it was clear that the boat they had was small, the living quarters was going to be cramped with just three people. Chad and Tatsuki had already picked up a hammock for the martial artist, but now with a fourth person aboard, it was going to be way too cramped not to mention the lack of privacy.

"Yeah, we'll need a bigger boat soon enough." Ichigo added as the four began to walk back down to Foosha Village. "Carina also has a list of what positions need to be filled before we head to the Grand Line." He explained, Carina pulling out a slip of paper and handing it to Chad who looked it over. Circled on the list were Doctor and Chef. Without a doubt those were two things that they wouldn't be able to do without. While Ichigo had some medical knowledge, he wasn't a doctor and didn't have the knowledge that a doctor would.

Chad had been living alone for quite a while now and only really knew how to cook instant ramen. The large teen didn't know if Tatsuki could cook, but she lived with her parents and since her focus was on martial arts and how much of a tomboy she was, he didn't have high hopes that she was able to cook a variety of meals.

"The circled ones we can't go without." Carina began to explain. "The doctor for obvious reasons, who knows what we'll come across out there on the Grand Line, it's a big enough monstrosity as it is, without all the unknown variables." She continued. "And we'll definitely need an experienced cook. No matter what, we'll need to keep our bodies healthy, and who better to do that then a first rate cook."

"What else is on this list?" Tatsuki questioned, Chad offering her the list she began reading through it. "A shipwright, Helmsman, Lookout, Quartermaster and Blacksmith." Tatsuki listed off a few as she turned to Carina. "Are all these really necessary?" She asked.

"Not really, but a crew is devised up of several factors." Carina began to explain. "If every situation has its respective solution then there won't be as many problems." She grinned. "Makes life just that little bit easier; shishishi." Tatsuki couldn't fault the logic with that. "But before we head to the Grand Line, we need a Cook and a Doctor."

"And if we don't stumble across any that want to join this merry band of misfits?" Tatsuki asked.

"Then we'll make do with what we get." Ichigo answered, Carina glaring slightly at him not liking the sound of that. "We can't expect complete strangers to journey to the most dangerous sea on the planet on just a whim; we don't have the luxury of being picky." He continued on. "They don't have to be a first class cook, as long as they cook and it's edible I'm fine with that and even if it's just a doctor in training, it's a hell of a lot more experience than what we have already." He added. "And if we don't find any here in the East Blue, we'll just pick them up in the Grand Line." He finished before he got a kick to the shin courtesy of the purple haired thief as she began to argue about how that wasn't the best way of thinking.

While it wasn't the best solution they didn't have a lot of options here. They first had to agree to go with them to the Grand Line. Despite the argument that arose from Carina that they needed to be more prepared in journeying to the Grand Line, they made it back to their boat with a fourth hammock. It was decided that they would spend the night here in Foosha village and set sail first thing in the morning.

When morning came, setting sail was a brief affair and before they knew it they were already out at sea, even the Lord of the Coast didn't come to greet them. Just a few travelers passing through, was all.

* * *

"Chad, be careful of the rocks around this area." Carina spoke up making Chad nod as he manoeuvred the ropes that controlled the sail to alter their course, keeping a watchful eye on the rocks that Carina spoke of not wanting to crash into them. They were drifting slowly at the current time, Tatsuki was below deck, reading through the hakuda book and also recovering from her fight with Chad. Carina and Ichigo were sitting opposite one another at the table that was on deck, looking over the map of the East Blue.

"Right now as we are, we're here." Carina began, pointing a finger to the map. "Just off of the Yotsuba Island Region." Carina began. "There are a few islands and towns dotted through the region but it's probably best we don't go through it."

"How come?" Ichigo asked, not sure why they would avoid it.

"As much as we need to get a chef and a doctor, we're better off moving away from Marine territory." Carina began. "While we're not pirates, I am a wanted thief." She added scratching at her cheek slightly. "While I don't have a wanted bounty like most pirates out there, there are a few Marine bases that know my face." Ichigo's glare made her start to sweat nervously. "I promise I won't bring any trouble and if we avoid the Yotsuba Island Region, there will be no trouble." She hastily added.

"We're going to have to go places where there are Marines, you know that right?" Ichigo asked.

"Of course." Carina began. "However, I'm a small time crook it's not like anyone knows my face out on the Grand Line, so it's fine. We just do our best to avoid any Marine bases until then." Ichigo ran a hand down his face with a sigh before Carina gestured back to the map, trailing her hand from their location that was marked with a coin, away from the Yotsuba Island Region to another island. "We have two choices, the Organ Islands." She began before trailing her finger slightly south west on the map. "Or Gecko Islands."

_"Who comes up with these names?"_ Ichigo thought to himself as he looked over their two potential destinations. With Carina's help she had shown them the path that they had taken from Silk's village, to where they found Ganzack inhabiting an island to where they picked Carina up then to Foosha Village on Dawn Island. It was much more reassuring now that they had a navigator aboard. But their course was clear, despite being slightly jagged in parts, their path was leading them south west to where Carina said the entrance to the Grand Line sat. "Suggestions?" Ichigo asked.

"I believe heading to the Organ Islands will be a waste of time." Carina told him seeing his raised eyebrow she gave her reasoning. "Before I met you I had intended to go there and retrieve a map of the Grand Line, however by now another thief has gotten to it." She told him. "She's cunning and crafty and there's no way she hasn't gotten that map by now."

"Damn, something like that could have come in handy." Ichigo sighed knowing the importance of a map.

"Agreed, it's the only one in the East Blue and was in the hands of a pirate." Carina sighed. "Such a loss, but if we see her we'll just nab it, shishishi." Ichigo shook his head as she laughed it off. "The Gecko island's might be a decent place to find a doctor, I hear that some doctors in that area have the necessary skills that we'd need."

"That'd at least tick one thing off our list." Ichigo agreed, noticing that it was once more on the path to the Grand Line, seeing a town far to the south west he pointed to it. "What's this town here?" He questioned.

"That's Loguetown, our final stop here in the East Blue, even I'm willing to go there despite the large Marine presence." She told him. "No matter what, it's everyone's last stop on the way to the Grand Line and we have to go there." She began. "It's the only place we can get a Log Pose from in the East Blue." Ichigo raised his eyebrow once more. "It's just something we need for the Grand Line and it's going to cost a whole bunch of Beri too."

"Let's just focus on the Gecko Islands for now and deal with that when we get closer to Loguetown." Carina nodded as she began to plan their course to their set destination.

Carina found it strange that despite being among them they hadn't discussed their positions apart from her being the Navigator. It was clear that Chad listened to Ichigo, no matter what and Tatsuki and Ichigo were clearly well acquainted. Despite this, she didn't know who the Captain was of her crew, she doubted it was Tatsuki since she had just joined with them before she herself had joined, and Ichigo nor Chad made any notion to say that they were in charge. Deciding to focus on their course, their positions could come up later and she didn't even want to dwell on their abnormal strength and abilities, she had witnessed Tatsuki's power and didn't want to know if it was a devil fruit or not. Chad and Ichigo's strength simply frightened her more.

Chad frowned slightly as he directed their boat through an area with some larger rocks, he hadn't intended to but it was to late to change their course and if he had they would have crashed into the rocks. He was careful to avoid the jagged edges doing his best to keep a wide berth between them and the boat. He was starting to get the hang of this it seemed. It looked like the exit of the rocky area was just ahead, and he directed the boat straight for it.

Chad frowned once more as he picked up the sound of splashing water, not like the water around the rocks the sound wasn't with the tide. Raising to his feet he searched the water's surface for the noise, until he saw a small boy in the water thrashing about struggling to keep his head above the water's surface.

"Hey, look!" Carina pointed noticing Chad's sudden change in demeanour. "There's a kid over there!" Ichigo's eyes shot wide open but before he himself could act, Chad had already dove overboard.

"Where the hell did he come from?" Ichigo asked looking around the area hoping there would be some kind of ship nearby as Carina rushed off to the side of the boat where Chad had jumped overboard and was now swimming to the boy. Searching the area the thief's eyes narrowed slightly, she didn't like this at all. The whole thing was just to convenient and without even the sight of a wreck?

_"This isn't feeling right."_ Her eyes locked onto the boy, just a few meters from Chad now, Ichigo had already adjusted their course to go and pick them up. The door to the cabin opened as Tatsuki came out, curious as to why their course had suddenly changed.

"A kid is in the water." Ichigo informed her. "Chad went to go get him." Tatsuki nodded as she hurried to Carina's side, noting the thief's uneasy stare.

"Something wrong Carina?" The martial artist questioned.

"I'm not sure." Carina admitted, had she had this feeling before she had come aboard this small boat she wouldn't have hesitated to flee under the circumstances, her instincts had kept her alive over the years, but now she didn't have that choice, she was apart of the crew.

"Are you alright?" Chad asked the kid as he got closer to the boy, reaching his hand out to the drowning boy. The kid then suddenly stopped thrashing in the water and smiled as if nothing was wrong.

"Thanks for asking." The kid grinned mischievously. Everyone raised an eyebrow when suddenly several contraptions shot up from the rocks, Chad was scooped up in a large net getting a shout from Carina and Tatsuki before another trap was set off as another shot over their small boat pinning those aboard down by the weight of the iron net.

"What!?" The three aboard shouted in unison as Chad was pulled from the water inside of the other net. Shortly after a man on a boat sailed toward them. The man was smiling with his arms folded over his chest. He wore goggles and a big green coat over himself and a backpack.

"Akisu. Good work." The man congratulated leaning down and offering his hand to the boy, easily pulling him out of the water and onto their own boat.

"Easy victory, piece of cake." The boy known as Akisu grinned at the older man. "Idiot's like them are easy to trick." This didn't sit well with those on the boat, especially Carina and Tatsuki who began to shout about stupid loud mouth brats. Ichigo simply glared as he lay under the net not impressed, Chad looking over in his direction. This was their life now, everyday was a new obstacle. "But they're only a gang of poor folk," Akisu said. "You can tell they don't have any money just by looking at 'em."

"Duped, eh?" The man said walking over to net that Chad was caught in, the man's eyes widening slightly. "Well if you aint one of the biggest men I've ever seen." He said before releasing the net by pulling a string, Chad falling onto the deck of their ship with a loud thud. With another pull of a lever, the iron clad net was pulled from the other ship allowing the three to get to their feet.

"Give us one good reason we shouldn't sink your right now!" Tatsuki shouted.

"Yeah! What's the big idea!" Carina added.

"A group of paupers, eh?" The man said while laughing.

"Who the hell are you?" Ichigo growled as he glared at the man and the boy scaring them both and making Carina look over to the deadly gaze of the orange haired teen. She'd been on the other side of his glare sure, but nothing that came close to this. He was beyond pissed

"Us?" The man answered weakly. Swallowing their fear for now they answered.

"Those sailing the seas in search of treasure!" The man and Akisu said together as they posed. "The Thief Brothers!" The two jumped into the air barreling through it and finally landing gracefully on a mountain of treasure chests.

"Borodo and..." Borodo pointed to himself.

"Akisu!" Akisu did the same.

"Thief Brothers?" Chad questioned as he rose to his feet towering over the two making them swallow nervously, maybe they hadn't thought long and hard about who they were capturing. As if on cue their mountain of treasure chest collapsed to the ground with the two so-called 'thieves' falling on along with them.

"What's that?" Ichigo questioned as their boat drifted closer to the 'thieves' boat. The thieves treasure chest's opened to reveal their treasure. Which didn't really look like treasure?

"That's treasure?" Tatsuki wondered placing her hands on her hip as she leaned over to get a better look at the contents of the chests, it looked nothing like the treasure that they had below deck. "It doesn't look like it?"

"It's just a bunch of trash!" Carina observed from where she leaned on the railing of their own boat. "You almost got my hopes up, but I didn't expect anything worth stealing anyway." She shrugged. "You're just a bunch of scavengers, poor paupers." She accused right back at them.

"That's not true!" Akisu argued. "Watch what you say about Borodo! Borodo is the man who will steal the Diamond Clock from Clockwork Island and become the greatest thief in the world!"

"You mean the Diamond Clock!" Carina asked excitedly with a smile getting looks from her own crew members.

"What's the Diamond Clock?" Tatsuki asked.

"If it has the word diamond and clock in it, what do you think it is?" Ichigo sighed making Tatsuki glare at him as he approached. "It's more than obvious by this one's excitement…" He said placing his hand atop Carina's head pushing her down making her let out an 'oomph', beri signs still showing in her eyes. "That it's something worth stealing."

"The finest jewel and greatest artifact ever crafted." Carina said still smiling as her head bounced back from the push. "The most valuable clock in the entire world! It's worth a fortune!" She exclaimed. "With that much money we'd be literally swimming in it!"

"We're not stealing a damn clock, sure we need money but I'm no thief." Ichigo growled, wrapping his knuckles atop her head making her let out a small whine as she cradled the top of her head with both hands.

"If you become the world's greatest thief if you stole it, it must have incredible value." Chad spoke as he folded his arms.

"So these guys are in your line of work then?" Ichigo asked Carina who frowned as she rubbed her chin slightly in thought.

"Sure, but there's one thing bugging me about all of this." Carina spoke making Ichigo raise an eyebrow in question. "Clockwork Island, there's a stronghold there making it almost impossible to steal the clock."

"The Trump Siblings." Borodo nodded in agreement, seeing the questioning looks on the faces of the three from another world, he continued. "They're a nefarious group of pirates that have a stronghold on Clockwork Island and terrorize the surrounding area," Borodo explained. "And the Diamond Clock that I'm after is also in their possession." He added as he pulled out a handful of papers, Chad and Ichigo recognising them as Wanted Posters. Borodo laid them out on the railing of his ship as Ichigo and Chad approached to get a look at them.

"They're some pretty big bounties." Chad spoke up getting a nod of agreement from Ichigo. The orange haired teen thought for a moment, they were in desperate need of a ship weren't they? That would undoubtedly cost them a lot of money that they just didn't have, sure the gold below deck would come to a considerable sum but combined the Trump Siblings had a collective bounty of 38.5 million beri's. That should get them a decent ship and supplies to head to the Grand Line with.

"There's a reason they have that bounty." Carina glared at Ichigo already sensing his train of thought. "Galley and Ganzack were one thing, but the Trump Siblings are worse than those two, whatever you're thinking, don't!"

"You're the one that said we need a ship." Ichigo smirked. "Plus it's not like we're pirates, so what if we cash in a few bounties?"

"B-Borodo, over there!" Akisu pointed gaining the attention of the occupants from both boats. Everyone looked over and saw a large fleet of ships sailing toward them, each flying their banners, all under a single pirate flag. Their ships were adorned with card symbols and animal figureheads.

"It's the Trump Pirates..." Borodo began to sweat nervously, how much of a coniencede could it be, it's like talking about them had simply summoned the infamous pirate crew. Carina was nervous at the approaching ships, she was unsure of what Ichigo and Chad were about to do. There was no way that they could take on that fleet. The Trump Siblings were ruthless pirates. If she had known they'd be going up against dangerous criminals on a whim she would have never agreed to join and be their navigator! The flagship grew closer and closer, those aboard the much smaller boats only looked up as it grew closer.

As much as he was ashamed to admit it, the first thing Ichigo saw from the ship was a female, she was blonde and very much naked. Somehow the pirates had changed the bear figurehead into a bathtub of sorts, which the woman was clearly bathing in without shame. It was clear that the woman in the bath was one of the bounties that Borodo had shown to them. "

'Honey Queen' worth 7,800,000 million beri's.

"Hmm?" The blonde hummed turning around to face the two smaller boats in the larger ship's path. "What's all this then?" She questioned.

"Have you no decency!?" Tatsuki shouted with an irritated scowl. "Get dressed you damn skank!" This seemed to only amuse Honey Queen as she leaned up on the side of the tub, showing off her assets to those below. Ichigo averted his gaze while Chad found a bird in the sky to look at.

"And what might you want?" Honey Queen asked, leaving the question open mainly to the two females aboard considering that Ichigo and Chad were averting their gazes as to not pay attention and Bordo and Akisu both had nose bleeds as they openly stared, at least Ichigo and Chad had the decency to look away.

"Perverts!" Tatsuki shouted crashing her hands down on both scavengers heads, knocking them down to the deck below.

"We don't really want anything." Carina spoke up, stepping in front of the seething Tatsuki, not wanting the martial artists temper to somehow trigger the pirates to open fire on them. "Just passing through is all, nothing to see here really." Ichigo shot Carina a glance, but he could sense the tension she held, it was clear she was afraid, after all they were only two small boats without a canon and they had several ships at their disposal. Honey Queen's attention trailed to the purple haired teen that had spoken and upon taking in her appearance gave a rather mischievous smirk causing the purple haired teen to grow more nervous under the gaze. She didn't like it one bit. However everyone's attention was brought to another that happily bounced around the rim of Honey Queen's tub.

"Alright!" The man was well into the later stages of obesity that was clear enough as it was, it was surprising that he was able to move as he did. He was very round to the point he almost looked like a sphere and wore a pig-themed outfit. A bandana-like hat with a pig's head design, a yellow shirt with a "J" printed on the front, as well as suspenders, and a white furred-back. He also has furred arm- and elbow-bands. "Time for a riddle!"

"Riddle?" Chad asked glancing at Ichigo the orange haired teen just as confused as the larger teen. Now wasn't really the time for a riddle was it? Like there were times and a place for such things.

"Who will become the greatest pirate in the world, the Pirate King?" Boo Jack asked only enticing a laugh from his fellow pirate.

"Come on now, Boo Jack." Honey Queen said. "That one's way too easy."

"Who gives a crap." Ichigo told them flatly making both of them falter as they stared at the orange haired teen, while he still held a slightly blush to his cheeks at the sight if the still nude Honey Queen, his eyes held a seriousness to them. He really didn't give a rats ass about who was going to be the Pirate King.

"Boo! Boo! Wrong!" Boo Jack shouted down, recovering from the sudden blunt answer. "The answer is our boss, Bear King!"

"I don't see how that was a a riddle." Chad began raising a hand to his chin. "Just a question really?" He finished turning to Ichigo. "A riddle should be phrased differently."

"Yeah, and there should be some kind of reward if you get it right." Ichigo nodded in agreement.

"Are you kidding me right now." Carina hung her head as Chad and Ichigo spoke about the difference between a riddle and a question. It was clearly not impressing the Trump Siblings before them from the obvious irate expressions growing on their faces.

"Boo Boo!" Boo Jack yelled angrily making Ichigo and Chad blink… really? What was with this guy, couldn't even understand the basic concept of a riddle and now he was yelling at them about his boo boo? What a child. "Mocking the Trump Pirates, eh!?"

"Well then, it seems we have to explain it to them." Honey Queen smiled and then snapped her fingers. The situation drastically changed and Carina's slamming her head against the Cabin wall was heard as the opposing ships were covered with pirates roaring and getting ready to attack while carrying their weapons.

"I actually didn't think there would be that many." Ichigo smirked, cracking his knuckles as he grinned."

"It should be fine." Chad agreed, while never one to seek out a battle due to his prior passive nature, he would always follow Ichigo's lead and if that meant they had to fight these pirates, then so be it.

"Let's kick some ass then." Tatsuki smirked punching her right fist into her left palm. "I need the practice."

"Right, let's see it!" Borodo agreed, Ichigo giving him a glance, was he going to fight? The pirates continued jumping toward the group. Chad and Ichigo both leaped from the boat making Tatsuki blink as she stood there between two sparks of green luminescent light. How the hell was she supposed to do that when she didn't have a clue on even what it was! She couldn't fly! Nobody had told her she'd be able to fly! Already the martial artist could see pirates being flung from the ship, explosions of cannons and gun fire were heard also as the pirates opened fire on the other worldly two. Tatsuki glanced at Carina who had a look of dread on her face as she watched the onslaught aboard one of the Trump ships. The young thief had no clue what she had signed up with by agreeing to be their navigator.

"El Directo!" Both turned to see a massive beam of blue light shot from the deck of the main ship and crash into another ship creating a massive hole through it sending the occupants of the ship jumping overboard as the large vessel began to sink. Tatsuki had to wonder as she continued to watch the chaos unfold… was she even really necessary here? Ichigo and Chad were more than experienced, did they really need her help?

"Just who are these guys!?" Borodo was astonished as the rear ships began to turn trying to flea despite not being ordered too, however they were stopped as black spiralling disks that were reminiscent to a wheel crashed into the masts causing them to break and fall onto the ships causing more chaos for the now panicking pirates.

* * *

"This isn't good." Honey Queen observed nervously. Two young men had sent their small fleet into utter chaos in the time that it took her to get out of the bath and dressed. She was nervous because she had never seen such raw power, even from Bear King himself, these two were clearly outclassing her Captain. Never before had she even heard of something like this. The Trump Fleet had several ships and scores of men, yet two people were tearing them apart like it was nothing.

"Here I come!" Boo Jack said as he jumped into the air starting his spike armour, Honey Queen tried to call out to him, to stop himself from getting killed but it was too late. He crashed onto the deck of Honey Queen's ship and began rolling like a large ball and splitting it across the middle and even knocking over some of the other Trump Pirates before Honey Queen witnessed him come to a dead stop.

Swallowing nervously Honey Queen observed the large teen that had brought him to a stop. His entire right arm had grown a shield like armament and despite Boo Jack's strength, the teen didn't budge. Instead Boo Jack stumbled back dazed from the sudden stop, the teen that was his opponent raised up his left hand that was covered in a white armour similar to his right, Honey Queen seeing his fingertips crackling with what seemed to be electricity before he formed a fist with it.

"El Muerte!" Chad threw his punch delivering it into the large stomach of the pirate lifting him off his feet before forcing him down crashing Boo Jack down into the deck. For a brief moment, Honey Queen didn't think the punch had been that devastating, his earlier show of power of the El Directo that he had unleashed earlier that had sunk a ship seemed more powerful. But that soon changed when the deck beneath Boo Jack split apart revealing the shape of a skull gouged into the deck. When Chad removed his hand from Boo Jack it was clear, the fat pirate was out cold. Honey Queen didn't even know if he was alive or dead. She didn't have the time to check.

"Getsuga!" The orange haired teen appeared in the air right before her from where she was standing on the second floor leaning on the railing looking over the main deck. His sword was cast back with a blue light producing an unknown power, just looking at his power made her freeze up in fear. Never had she felt such fear in her life and despite her power, she rose her hands to defend herself. "Tensho!" Ichigo swung his blade, the crescent blue wave slicing it's way towards Honey Queen.

"Nooooo!" Honey Queen screamed before the crescent wave sliced straight through her abdomen, crashing into the cabin behind her resulting in a small explosion. Ichigo landed on the railing, a scowl on his face. He knew Chad's attack was considerably weakened due the lower extent of power it produced, knowing Chad didn't want to carelessly take life. Even Ichigo's Getsuga had considerably less power, he had just wanted to knock Honey Queen off her feet, how the hell had it sliced straight through her? And on that note… why was her blood like purple goo? Was that normal? It didn't sound normal. Probably wasn't normal.

"What the…" Ichigo blinked as he witnessed the rest of Honey Queen's body turn into the same purplish goo before she seemingly slipped down through the cracks in the floorboards. "You don't see that everyday." He muttered to himself, unsure of what he had just witnessed. Following Honey Queen's disappearance, Ichigo and Chad went about destroying the pirate ships making it impossible for the rest of the crews to be able to flee, undoubtedly someone would stumble upon them eventually preferably the Marines, it wasn't like they could take every single pirate on their smaller vessels and they weren't about to commit mass murder on helpless pirates.

Instead Chad had wrapped Boo Jack up in several thick chains with no hope of escape for the fat pirate even if he somehow awoke, Chad had taken the strange spiked coat he used as a weapon and had intended to throw it overboard, however Carina had stopped him saying that it might be valuable and could get them some extra money if they sold it. Instead it was stored below deck in the weapon's cache that Kisuke had sent them. Now the two small boats were sailing alongside one another, Borodo and Akisu were both quiet as they sailed along, unsure what to make of their new travelling companions. They were just glad that the travelling four had forgot all about the little incident that involved the duo of treasure hunters to try and rob them of everything they had.

"You're saying she slipped straight through the floorboards?" Tatsuki questioned in disbelief as she folded her arms as she stared at Ichigo.

"That's what I said." Ichigo sighed.

"He's not wrong." Carina spoke up. "Honey Queen probably has the power of a Devil Fruit." Carina started crossing her arms. "Just like you three." She added.

_"Devil Fruit huh, do they all turn into purple liquid than?"_ Ichigo mused silently to himself, no that couldn't be it. She believed their powers to be Devil Fruits and she had only seen what Tatsuki and Chad could do up close, no purple goo there. These Devil Fruits must just bestow random powers onto the user?

"Devil Fruits huh…" Tatsuki pondered before getting a look from Ichigo that said 'roll with it'. She sent a glare back saying 'explain later'. "Now, before we reach this Clockwork Island or whatever, teach me how to fly." Ichigo blinked slightly before turning to Chad, the large teen turning his attention elsewhere. "I couldn't get up on the ships because you two morons shot up there before I knew what was happening, I need to know how to do that too so I'm not useless." Ichigo scratched at the side of his head with a finger, with a quick glance over to Borodo and Akisu he rose the question.

"How long before we get to Clockwork Island?" Ichigo asked.

"A few hours." Borodo told him. "Give or take a few." Ichigo frowned, it really wasn't enough to teach her to 'fly' it wasn't exactly flying, more of hardening the spiritual pressure under your feet to be able to stand in the air, and even then what Ichigo and Chad had done was simply use their powers to enhance their jump and speed. Tatsuki still had a lot to learn and with only a few hours until they hit Clockwork Island, there wasn't enough time to really go through it all. He had seen what she was capable of when she sparred with Chad, she had the power but no control.

"Tatsuki, you know more than anyone else that nothing comes within a few hours." Ichigo began, Tatsuki's glare increasing. "How about this, once we've done with this new band of pirates; Chad and I will start to teach you more about your powers." Tatsuki folded her arms, glare still in place. "Until we reach the island, focus on what you need. Control." Ichigo explained. "When your sparred against Chad you were too focused on using your power, let it flow naturally. Do that and your attacks will come faster, stronger. It will also help you in what you learn from Chad and I." Tatsuki sighed and hung her head, she knew what he was saying was right but she was too impatient. Here she was wanting to get stronger and Ichigo was telling her to wait. Sure they didn't have the time but it still bugged her.

"Fine." She huffed. "But if I find you trying to weasel your way out of this."

"I won't." Ichigo told her before glancing over at Carina who had been half listening. "You're also going to learn how to fight." The purple haired thief blinked in surprise.

"Excuse me?" Carina questioned.

"He's right." Tatsuki nodded in agreement. "When we found you, you were pretty beat up. You said it was because of pirates." She explained. "Plus, what's the harm in it? You'll be able to defend yourself afterwards."

"Plus we're going to the Grand Line, something both Chad and I have been told that is the most dangerous sea in the world." Ichigo told her. "I'm betting that's not just because of the bad weather and sea monsters. We'll be attacked by others probably, from pirates more than likely Marines…" Ichigo made a mental note that it was probably because of Carina that they'd be on the canon end of the Marines sooner rather than later. "… and more probable native cannibals to islands we visit." He shrugged making Carina pale. "So, it's best to fend off the nasty cannibals right?"

"R-Right." Carina nodded hastily, she was starting to regret deciding to go to the Grand Line. Looking over to Chad, Ichigo saw that the large teen had seemed to strike up a conversation with Borodo and Akisu something about a music box that the young boy had. It had caught the large teen's attention and seeing that it might be interesting Ichigo headed over to the small trio, deciding to sit on the tail of how Borodo and Akisu met when the boy was set out to sea on his own. Tatsuki and Carina on the other hand were stuck with the fact that they had little time to prepare for what was coming, it was clear that somehow they would have to go along with everyone once they reached Clockwork Island. They couldn't just say, alright we'll see you when you're done. That wasn't how a crew worked. Everyone pitched in.

"You can teach me to fight, right?" Carina questioned catching Tatsuki's attention. The martial artist smiled and nodded. They had a few hours, Tatsuki could at least teach her something on top of already what she had, even if it was fixing her form, the girl was a thief there was bound to have been times where she couldn't schmooze her way out of a situation. Tatsuki was in this for the long hall, if that meant helping train others while she was waiting to be trained herself, that was fine, it would keep her mind busy and pass the time that they spent at sea.

"Let's see what you've got."


End file.
